Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear Monday that Republicans controlling the U.S. Senate will pat the head of one of the little ladies, and only one, by enduring her perfunctory testimony Thursday.
Big-shot Republican men will fold their arms, tap their feet and wait for Christine Blasey Ford to shut up.
Then they’ll tell her she must be mistaken about the identify of her assailant so long ago at that teenaged drinking party. Remember, dear, it was dark, one or more of the clumsier may say.
Then they’ll vote to put the man she accuses of sexual assault on the U.S. Supreme Court for the rest of his life. That’s entirely so that the Republican right-wing base, largely stemming from a modern brand of religion that doesn’t care about behavior, will be nourished into satisfaction.
McConnell was gentler than U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, cross-examining abuser of Anita Hill in 1991. Hatch responded to the second charge against Kavanaugh — that of Deborah Ramirez, from a drunken dorm gathering at Yale — by calling it “crap.”
That’s what happens to a little lady when she upsets one of the big men.
It’s unjust is what it is, for the two women.
I’m not saying they’re telling the truth and that Kavanaugh isn’t. I’m saying both of the women have come forward reluctantly with accounts, and, when pulled into the open, asked for an FBI investigation, which would necessarily begin with their sworn statements.
If they’re lying, they’d be committing crimes to tell those lies to the FBI.
Kavanaugh and the Republicans don’t want an FBI investigation, even as he professes categorical innocence and they dutifully regurgitate what he professes.
Kavanaugh’s defenders say these charges are entirely too laden with gaps to warrant an FBI investigation. But that’s precisely why the nation’s best investigators ought to come in with their intimidating presences and finest techniques … to try to fill those gaps, to determine whatever can be found out in regard to both of these alleged incidents.
At best, they solve the cases. At worst, they give us more information.
For example, Ford says specifically that a youngster named Mark Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh drunkenly pinned her on the bed and covered her mouth and tried to take off her clothes. Judge has had a lawyer issue a blanket written denial for him, and Judge has declined to testify.
Republicans are happy with that. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Remember that?
But the FBI could go see the guy, merely to confirm by a live sworn statement what his lawyer had typed out dismissively for him to say.
If you are categorically and absolutely certain of the veracity of what you allege, even among gaps, then you welcome an FBI investigation, both to confirm and amplify what you’ve said.
If you are categorically and absolutely certain that you did not remotely engage ever in anything resembling what these women’s smears on you allege, then you’d welcome an FBI investigation, too.
Or so it compellingly seems to me.
I’m not convicting Kavanaugh by saying that. He’s not charged with anything. I’m saying the women seem more credible to me because they trust an investigation.
And I’m saying that, if you tend to believe more of what they say than of what he says, then it’s your right and responsibility to consider whether that bears on this fellow’s becoming an eminent justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, casting a perhaps fifth and decisive anti-woman vote.
Actually, it’s the U.S. Senate Republicans’ right and responsibility, according to constitutional process. Sadly, they seem to be warming up to abuse the former and shirk the latter.
I saw a cartoon Monday that captured the situation more succinctly than my 700 words.
On the left side of the drawing were protesting women carrying a sign saying “#MeToo.” On the right side were portly old men labeled GOP and carrying a sign saying “#SoWhat?”
Here’s what ought to happen: The likeliest Republican senators to exercise fairness — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Jeff Flake — should jointly announce that they believe Kavanaugh and will vote to confirm him as soon as an expedited FBI investigation is completed to confirm their trust that there’s no evidence he behaved in such a way.
Reagan said it: Trust, but verify.
John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.
*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this column listed an incorrect name for one reference to Brett Kavanaugh.