Chait: Why Brett Kavanaugh's Hearings Convinced Me That He's Guilty

[highplainsdem]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/why-brett-kavanaughs-hearings-convinced-me-that-hes-guilty.html

I think Brett Kavanaugh is probably lying about having sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, and many other things, and has decided from the beginning to say what he has to in order to fulfill his career ambition. There is, however, at least some, small chance that he is telling the truth when he professes his innocence. And that small chance gives me some sympathetic human reaction to his emotional testimonial. If he is somehow innocent, as he claims, he has been subject to a horrifying and humiliating ordeal.

That, however, does not justify confirming Kavanaugh to a lifelong position on the Supreme Court. He has, for one thing, all but abandoned the posture of impartiality demanded of a judge. A ranting Kavanaugh launched angry, evidence-free charges against Senate Democrats. “The behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment. But at least it was just a good old-fashioned attempt at Borking,” he said, using a partisan term invented by Republicans to complain about ideological scrutiny of an extreme judicial nominee. “This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled by pent-up anger over President Trump in the 2016 election.”

Why they took this revenge against Kavanaugh, rather than the first justice who was appointed after the 2016 elections, when Democrats’ anger over both the election and the treatment of Merrick Garland ran hotter, he did not say. Kavanaugh does not seem able to imagine even the possibility that Democrats actually believe the women accusing him of sexual assault. He is consumed with paranoid, partisan rage.

-snip-

Why do I believe Kavanaugh is lying? The charges are credible, and his accusers are willing to put themselves at risk, with no apparent gain to bring them to the public. Kavanaugh has said too many things that strain credulity for all them to be plausibly true. He almost certainly lied about having had access to files stolen by Senate Republicans back when he was handling judicial nominations in the Bush administration. His explanation that the “Renate Alumni” was not a sexual reference is difficult to square with a fellow “Renate Alumnus’s poem ( “You need a date / and it’s getting late / so don’t hesitate / to call Renate.”) portraying her as a cheap date. His insistence “boof” and “devils’s triangle” from his yearbooks were references to flatulence and a drinking game drew incredulous responses from people his age who have heard these terms. His claim that the “Beach Week Ralph Club” was a reference to a weak stomach seems highly unlikely.

The accretion of curious details ultimately overwhelms the small possibility that he is a man wronged. The conviction he summoned is the

Righteous belief of an adult who feels he should not be denied the career reward due to him by the errors of his youth, and who decided from the outset to close the door to that period in his life. Perhaps he believes he has made amends for his cruelty. I see a liar who has the chance to prove his good faith innocence, and has conspicuously refused.

The last and next-to-last paragraphs there are actually one paragraph, with some editing mistake splitting the second sentence. They'll probably fix that problem later but I'm copying it as is, at the moment.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. If, as he claims, the whole thing was nothing but a politically-motivated setup,

why didn't Gorsuch get the same treatment?

Maybe because he didn't try to rape a fifteen-year-old or wave his dick in a woman's face?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

2. I don't think it's about what kind of kid he was, it's what kind of man he's become.

It's clear from his behavior during the hearing that his temperament is not that of a dispassionate judge. He is at times petulant, self-pitying and arrogant -- not at all the characteristics you'd expect or want from a member of the Supreme Court. The others are very opinionated, true, but you never question their emotional fitness for the job.

Kavanaugh reminds me of the pre-med jerk in "Van Wilder" who watches his well-planned entitled life literally wiped out in a flood of shit. "But I'm supposed to be a Supreme Court justice! Everybody says so! I deserve it!" Flush.

That said, barring a thunderbolt from God he's going to be confirmed and sworn in by the end of next week. The fix is in.

Then it's time for Act Two, where the three accusers (or at least Avenatti's client) file criminal charges against a sitting member of the SCOTUS. Pass me the popcorn, please.