Temperament matters; Kavanaugh is wrong for US Supreme Court
We may never know the truth about whether Brett Kavanaugh assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in 1982. That’s a messy, unfortunate reality, but it needn’t get in the way of a decision on Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. We already know enough to be certain that he does not belong on the nation’s highest bench.
Last Thursday, Kavanaugh was tested by questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee and the experience drove him to reveal a shockingly combative, defensive and vengeful personality. The notion of granting this person a lifetime of the power vested in a Supreme Court justice is appalling.
“Of course he’s angry; he’s been wrongly accused of something terrible,” a Kavanaugh supporter might say.
But the appeals court judge had more than a week to process Ford’s statement that he sexually assaulted her in 1982 when they both were teens. He had time to gather himself and muster some composure. He presumably had the highest level of counsel, both legal and practical, available to prepare him to address the allegation with forceful dignity.
Instead, he lashed out in fury. He seethed and all but shouted. He gave rude, curt and flippant responses.
His opponents saw it as the rage of an unjustly privileged elitist at being denied the ultimate prize. That may or may not be true, but he was unmistakably enraged. He was unable to maintain any semblance of nonpartisan judicial temperament, instead bitterly condemning Democrats for their role in demanding an investigation of Ford’s statements.
And some of the things that actually are known about Kavanaugh cast serious doubt that he ever could be a politically impartial guardian of the rule of law. He could have allowed that Ford must be mistaken in her belief that he is the one who attacked her so long ago. Instead, he insisted that the allegations are part of an “orchestrated campaign” of revenge against him “on behalf of the Clintons.”
Indeed, Kavanaugh’s role in the mid-1990s investigation of President Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct is ironic. In a 1998 memo, he urged special prosecutor Kenneth Starr to ask Clinton graphic questions about his sexual encounters with White House intern Monica Lewinsky — “to make his pattern of revolting behavior clear — piece by painful piece.”
But Kavanaugh is livid that anyone dares look into his high-school and college behavior to get an idea of the culture he embraced.
Kavanaugh’s towering contempt for Democrats on the judiciary committee further exposed him as a fierce partisan who sees the world in terms of friends and enemies, not of individuals with rights under the law.
The sorry spectacle grew even uglier Tuesday night with President Donald Trump’s red-meat appeal to supporters at a political rally in Mississippi. Unable to resist playing to his base, he belittled Ford and her story, mockingly imitating her testimony.
It earned him the thing he seems to crave above all else — cheers from an adoring crowd — but it no doubt horrified his handlers, and rightly so.
In a rational world, the president’s naked scorn at least should have drawn uncomfortable silence.
Even in the current climate, it should make senators think twice about honoring the president’s wishes; especially because he wishes to give immense direct power to an angry partisan who becomes a bully when challenged.