The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

What Is the Kavanaugh Smear About?

Posted on | September 16, 2019 | Comments Off on What Is the Kavanaugh Smear About?

The New York Time revived its smear campaign against Justice Brett Kavanaugh in an article that had to be immediately corrected:

The New York Times suddenly made a major revision to a supposed bombshell piece late Sunday concerning a resurfaced allegation of sexual assault by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — hours after virtually all 2020 Democratic presidential candidates had cited the original article as a reason to impeach Kavanaugh.
The update included the significant detail that several friends of the alleged victim said she did not recall the supposed sexual assault in question at all. The Times also stated for the first time that the alleged victim refused to be interviewed, and has made no comment about the episode.
The only first-hand statement concerning the supposed attack in the original piece, which was published on Saturday, came from a Clinton-connected lawyer who claimed to have witnessed it.
The Times’ revision says: “Editors’ Note: An earlier version of this article, which was adapted from a forthcoming book, did not include one element of the book’s account regarding an assertion by a Yale classmate that friends of Brett Kavanaugh pushed his penis into the hand of a female student at a drunken dorm party. The book reports that the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say that she does not recall the incident. That information has been added to the article.”
The update came only after The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, who reviewed an advance copy of the book, first flagged the article’s omission on Twitter — prompting other commentators to press the issue.

Let’s be clear on who is peddling this tale:

The man telling the story, Max Stier, represented Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 1990s when Bill Clinton was accused of exposing himself to a woman in a hotel room.
Stier’s story appears in the forthcoming book The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly. “A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student,” the authors wrote in a New York Times article teasing the book.
As for Max Stier, he has a long history with sexual assault claims, but from the other side. Stier, a Democrat, represented President Bill Clinton after Paula Jones accused him of exposing himself to her in a hotel room. Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000 and lost his law license for five years.
Stier also worked closely with David Kendall, representing Hillary Clinton against allegations of illegally handling classified information in the Whitewater investigation. Kavanaugh worked with Ken Starr on the other side of the Clinton impeachment battle. During his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh had accused his opponents of being motivated by “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.” This allegation seems to confirm that.

It’s a straight-up partisan hit job. Professor William Jacobson weighs in: 

Donald Trump was elected president. But it wasn’t over.
There immediately launched an attempt to pressure Electors to change their votes, then an FBI-Democrat collusive attempt to undermine the presidency before it began, and a slow-motion coup to prevent the administration from governing. It’s still not over, as Democrats hurl themselves towards the cliff of impeachment.
Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court after a brutal smear campaign which saw accusation after accusation fall apart when subjected to scrutiny. But it wasn’t over.
After confirmation, but before the midterms, Dianne Feinstein promised to reopen the investigation of Kavanaugh if Democrats retook the Senate (they didn’t). Soon after the 2018 midterms after Democrats gained control of the House, incoming House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler signaled an intention to impeach Kavanaugh.
There have been organized attempts by Democratic operatives to get him fired from a law teaching position, and by Democrats in Congress to dig up old National Archive records in an attempt to create a public relations campaign to get him to recuse from future abortion decisions.
Today’s NY Times hit piece, which left out key details about a new accusation and the old discredited Ramirez accusation casting doubt on the reporting, has ignited calls from several leading Democrat presidential candidates and the social media mob to impeach Kavanaugh.
It’s never over.

Well, what is this really about?

Elizabeth Warren Joins Harris, Castro
in Calling for Kavanaugh’s Impeachment
— Slate

Democrats call for Kavanaugh impeachment
over new sexual misconduct claims
— NBC News

2020 Democrats call for Kavanaugh
to be impeached
— The Hill

New Brett Kavanaugh sexual misconduct accusation sets off calls for Supreme Court impeachment
— CBS News

It’s about creating a new “scandal” to replace “Russian collusion” as an excuse for Democrats to run an impeachment inquiry. And also, it’s battlespace preparation for next year’s presidential campaign. Ruth Bader Ginsburg obviously isn’t getting any younger, and Democrats want to campaign in 2020 on the idea that allowing Trump to appoint Ginsburg’s replacement would endanger “a woman’s right to choose.”



 

Category: New York Times, Supreme Court

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