The Ring of Truth<\/p>\n
It felt a little bit like getting ready for the \u201cbig game.\u201d\u00a0 I was up early, getting everything else that needed to be done, done.\u00a0I made a big breakfast, got the right TV stations up, and at 10:00 am I sat down to watch history.\u00a0 Gavel to gavel, taking breaks only when Chairman Grassley did, I watched the Kavanaugh hearing from Grassley\u2019s first statement to Kamala Harris\u2019s last question.\u00a0 It was an inflection point in America, both about our current crisis in politics and the Supreme Court, and in culture.<\/p>\n
In full disclosure, I am a \u201cliberal Democrat,\u201d and I would prefer Judge Kavanaugh not get on the Court.\u00a0And I do think the Democrats on the Committee have pulled off the political \u201cplay\u201d that Lindsey Graham threw his \u201chissy fit\u201d about.\u00a0 Democrats, operating from a two-vote deficit, have done everything they could do to try to stop Kavanaugh\u2019s confirmation.\u00a0 And before anybody cries \u201cfoul,\u201d they better look at Merrick Garland just a couple of years ago.\u00a0 There are no rules in a \u201cknife fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republicans picked the wrong man, and they know it.\u00a0 There was a reason that Mitch McConnell, the master Republican Senate strategist, wanted anyone on the Federalist Society list besides Kavanaugh.\u00a0 Whether they had whiffs of the teenage scandal I don\u2019t know, but they knew that Kavanaugh was the most controversial of their choices.\u00a0But President Trump chose Kavanaugh, no doubt because of his views on Presidential power and immunity from prosecution, and, to quote the judge himself, they are \u201creaping the whirlwind.\u201d<\/p>\n
But yesterday wasn\u2019t about the politics of Brett Kavanaugh\u2019s nomination.\u00a0 Yesterday was about whether a man should be accountable for his actions as a boy.\u00a0 It was about whether we should allow a man to lie to the Senate, and the country, about his past for political expediency, or whether we should hold him accountable.\u00a0 It was about truth.<\/p>\n
The Judiciary Committee determined that the process of deciding about Judge Kavanaugh would be made only by hearing Dr. Ford and the Judge; making a decision using just what they had to say.\u00a0 They chose not to have other witnesses, including the one eye-witness to what happened.\u00a0They chose to decide just on the statements of the two principals, and we too, as a nation, are forced to decide on those terms.<\/p>\n
My last job before retiring, was \u201cjudging\u201d the actions of teenagers.\u00a0 As a Dean of Students in a 1200 kid high school, I dealt with everything from spitballs to rape.\u00a0 When a \u201creal\u201d victim told their story, you could hear truth in the details, in the feelings, in the \u201cout-of-body\u201d view, and the clear emotional terror.\u00a0 Truth has a finality, and a clarity, and a simplicity that all of the fiction a Dean of Students hears the rest of the day is lacking.<\/p>\n
Truth:\u00a0 when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford stepped up to the table, shaking, and raised her hand to be sworn in, it was clear we were hearing truth.\u00a0She answered questions carefully, effectively, and without evasion.\u00a0 She told what she knew, and clearly acknowledged what she did not know.\u00a0 She was an \u201cunimpeachable\u201d witness:\u00a0 and it was clear when she was done that the harsh laughter of teenage boys echoed not just in her memory, but throughout the national conscious.<\/p>\n
And as Dean of Students I dealt with \u201centitled\u201d students:\u00a0 those who felt that due to their parents, or their connections, or their membership on a team or in a social group; they were entitled to do whatever they wanted.\u00a0When that entitlement was questioned; the result was often disbelief and anger; outrage that their \u201cstanding\u201d was questioned.\u00a0 It was called the \u201cgood kid\u201d defense:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m a good kid, I couldn\u2019t do anything wrong, and if I did, I should be excused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outrage:\u00a0 when Brett Kavanaugh walked into the hearing room, shaking with rage, choking with tears; he was demanding his \u201canointed place.\u201d\u00a0His insolence and disrespect towards the Senators, his evasiveness answering questions, and his clear terror of an FBI investigation that would include his teenage friend Mark Judge: \u00a0this did not have the ring of truth.<\/p>\n
The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have set the terms.\u00a0 We can only decide by listening to these two, Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh.\u00a0We are not allowed to search further, hear testimony, or investigate what happened.<\/p>\n
On that basis the answer was clear:\u00a0 truth versus entitlement.\u00a0 Truth should win out, and Judge Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court.\u00a0 But this is not a high school, it is the highest stakes political \u201cgame\u201d in the United States; so I don\u2019t really expect that truth will win.\u00a0 What I do expect is that America will see truth denied; and vote accordingly.<\/p>\n
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