The most depressing truth is that what you believe about Kavanaugh and Ford is principally determined by your political affiliation. I remember when the Monica Lewinski scandal broke during the Clinton administration and hearing liberal friends dismiss her entirely as not attractive enough to warrant Bill Clinton’s attention and later conservative friends commenting that without the infamous blue dress and it’s incriminating stain that the Clinton machine would have savaged and torn Ms. Lewinski apart in the court of public opinion. Of course the process of tearing a woman apart in the court of public opinion is going on right this moment and their concerns have evaporated.
Researching a story that required me to get into the head-space of a sexual assault survivor I have read dozens of survivors stories and I have absolutely no doubt that Dr. Ford is indeed a woman who survived such an assault.
However more important that Dr. Ford’s heartbreaking testimony is Judge Kavanaugh’s evasive response. I scarcely expect any person to confess to sexual crimes committed or attempted but his ‘choir boy’ facade, never drank to excess, had only the deepest respect, focused on study and church is laughably false, contradicted by his own yearbook associates from that time period. It is a lie of Trump-like proportions. It causes serious doubt as to his innocence.
Some have repeated that there is no evidence of the assault, and there is unlikely to be any, not after more than 30 years, but let’s look at the evidence argument.
If Judge Kavanaugh is innocent then he should not only welcome a through investigation of the events by the impartial and professional FBI, he should be demanding it. Hell, from my understanding there is not statute of limitation for that jurisdiction as an officer of the court shouldn’t his position be that the crime must be investigated to its fullest? But that’s is not his position. When directly asked if that was what he wanted he sat silent. Further more he asserted that this was a coordinated political hit, that the entire accusation was revenge for his participation in the Clinton sexual investigations. Hell, if that were the case then even more you would want the FBI poking around, pulling threads, and lifting rocks. If there were such a conspiracy you’d want it exposed. As a partisan you’d want to expose the opposition party with bloody red hands. But there is no evidence of this conspiracy. There is no call to investigate this conspiracy. There is only the accusation, made without support and taken at face value as fact.
So there we are, a woman in tears, recounting her sexual assault and not wavering at all in naming who was responsible and a powerful man insisting, without any evidence at all, that he is the victim of a vast left-wing conspiracy. The simplest explanation tends to be the accurate one and between a drunken assault and a coordinated conspiracy I have no doubt which is simplest.
