#7B Republicans approval of guilty Kavanaugh reprehensible

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By George H Butcher III

Senate Republicans approved Justice Kavanaugh despite his evident guilt of sexual assault. They covered up his guilt and slimed his victim.

The Republicans’ approval of the provably guilty Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice is a historical outrage. Their dishonest defense of Justice Kavanaugh reflected a willingness to subject the country, women, and victims of sexual assault to a grossly unsuitable Supreme Court justice. By approving him despite his evident guilt, they gave the middle finger to the #metoo movement.

The Republicans had to be aware of Justice Kavanaugh’s 2018 admission of guilt, through his false testimony during his confirmation hearing. They also had to be aware, using common sense, that Dr. Ford was present at the July 1, 1982 house-party.

Yet, they ignored those unavoidable facts. They pretended that there is no corroboration for her story. In denying the existence of corroborating evidence, the Republicans implied or outright stated that Dr. Ford imagined the event where she described being sexually assaulted and imagined being sexually assaulted by Justice Kavanaugh.

How did we get to this point?

This is Blog #7B in my series of blog posts. Blog #7A identified six prongs of the Republican strategy for defending Justice Kavanaugh against Dr. Ford’s accusation. It also examined Senator Collins’ articulated rationale for confirming Justice Kavanaugh despite Dr. Ford’s sexual-assault allegation.

Senator Collins articulated her rationale in a speech explaining her vote to confirm Justice Kavanaugh. Her reasoning encompassed every aspect of the Republican defense strategy. So, that examination of her rationale evaluated each of the six prongs of their strategy.

This Blog #7B will look more broadly at the conduct of the Republicans in confirming Justice Kavanaugh despite Dr. Ford’s allegations. The conduct of the other Republican senators who were responsible for confirming Justice Kavanaugh is just as blameworthy as that of Senator Collins.

The Republicans’ conduct in summary

Like Justice Kavanaugh himself, the Senate Republicans treated responding to Dr. Ford’s sexual-assault allegation as a game. They ignored or actively covered up the pertinent evidence, made a series of baseless or false arguments in his defense, slimed his victim by implying she’s delusional, and accused the Democrats of playing politics. Then they proceeded to confirm Justice Kavanaugh despite the readily apparent evidence of his guilt and his visibly false testimony.

The Republicans ignored clear evidence of Justice Kavanaugh’s guilt

Justice Kavanaugh’s most obvious and crucial lie – that there was nothing in his summer of 1982 calendars that “remotely fit” Dr. Ford’s accusation – was flagrant. It was so conspicuous that no conscious observer could have missed it.

It was a blatant lie without taking account of the proof that Justice Kavanaugh is guilty as alleged. It was a blatant lie without even taking account of the unquestionable fact that the July 1, 1982 house-party shown in his calendar is the event at which Dr. Ford described being assaulted. That glaring and crucial lie should be viewed as an admission of guilt.

But the Republicans ignored both his constant lying on many topics and his specific lies about Dr. Ford’s accusation. They even bizarrely claimed that he was a highly credible witness, which was a flagrant lie.

However, Justice Kavanaugh’s relationship with the truth has been more accurately characterized as follows:

“As many have noted, Kavanaugh lied and lied and lied. He lied so obviously that the point seemed to be ‘Please notice how much I’m lying.’”
Macleans Magazine, Tabatha Southey, October 13, 2018

The Republicans ignored and hid the corroboration of Dr. Ford’s testimony and dishonestly undermined her credibility

Moreover, the Republicans used smoke and mirrors to question and undermine Dr. Ford’s credibility. They ignored and covered up the definitive corroboration that she was present at a July 1, 1982 house-party together with Justice Kavanaugh and Mr. Judge. And they used irrelevant and dishonest arguments to question whether the event she described occurred, knowing that it did.

The corroboration of Dr. Ford’s testimony about the July 1 house-party doesn’t merely exist. It has a statistically quantifiable confidence level that she was there of effectively 100%. That corroboration is incontestable. It doesn’t rely on her credibility or the credibility of any other witness. So, Justice Kavanaugh’s July 1 calendar entry confirms virtually all of the details of Dr. Ford’s recollection.

Thus, the claims of Republicans, both during and since the confirmation hearings, that there is no corroboration for Dr. Ford’s testimony have been blatantly false. It would not be possible to find more substantial corroboration of a witnesses’ testimony. The only comparably strong evidence would be incontestable video evidence of her and the other attendees at the July 1, 1982 house-party.

The Republican defense strategy was despicable.

The fifth prong of their strategy – labeling Dr. Ford as delusional – is highly offensive. It involved the deliberate re-victimization of Dr. Ford by Republican Senators and Justice Kavanaugh based on arguments they had to know were baseless or false.

They implied that Dr. Ford imagined the event where she claims to have been sexually assaulted and imagined the sexual assault by Justice Kavanaugh. That prong of their defense strategy is so offensive that the Republicans had to find a woman who was willing to execute it – Senator Collins.

Yet, they all had to be aware that the event Dr. Ford described is the July 1, 1982, house-party detailed in Justice Kavanaugh’s calendar. That conclusion only required a common-sense understanding of the facts, as is explained in the analysis of Senator Collins’ defense of Justice Kavanaugh in Blog #7A.

The Senate Republicans and Justice Kavanaugh worked to coverup the fact that the two events are the same, even before Senator Collins’ speech. That effort is reflected in Senators Graham’s dishonest conduct described below. It is also reflected in Justice Kavanaugh’s false testimony concerning the event described by Dr. Ford.

The Republican delusion

The Republican defense strategy for Justice Kavanaugh was based on an expectation that Dr. Ford’s sexual-assault accusation against him would be a “he-said, she-said” matter. That would have been a natural expectation given the apparent complicity of most or all of the witnesses who were present at the event described by Dr. Ford.

However, the existence of Justice Kavanaugh’s calendars changed that reality. The similarities between his July 1, 1982 calendar entry and her description of the event where he assaulted her, caused reality to differ from their expectation. Because of those similarities, Dr. Ford was provably at the July 1 house-party.

The Republicans could have accepted reality. That would have required that they acknowledge the evidence of Justice Kavanaugh’s unsuitability to be a Supreme Court justice.

Instead, their expectation became a delusion. The Republicans refused to accept the new reality – that Dr. Ford’s accusation is not a “he said, she said” matter – and they continued to pretend that it is. In other words, they continued to pretend that Dr. Ford imagined the event where she was sexually assaulted and imagined being sexually assaulted.

The Republicans apparently believed that they could ignore and hide the evidence which corroborates Dr. Ford’s account. But that should have been impossible in a country with a free and fair press corps.

Their belief manifests the honest Republican view of the mainstream media – a total lack of respect. To date, the Republicans’ confidence in their ability to ignore reality has been justified.

The Republican response to the evidence against Justice Kavanaugh tells you everything you need to know

Any group that was not fundamentally corrupt would have accepted the new reality. No honest and rational group would have wanted guilty and pervasively dishonest Justice Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court.

The Republicans did not face a choice between confirming Justice Kavanaugh or permitting a Democrat to be confirmed. They could have simply chosen another qualified and suitable Republican nominee.

The Republicans are clearly rational. So, it is unavoidable that they have dishonest objectives for confirming Justice Kavanaugh. More specifically, they evidently believe that Justice Kavanaugh’s dishonesty will serve the strategic objectives of the Republican Party.

In other words, the Republicans expect that his actions on the Supreme Court will be similarly dishonest. But they believe that his dishonesty will result in judicial decisions that serve their interests.

There is a crucial lesson about Republicans and sexual predators

The lesson for non-Republicans and all women is that the Republicans will not hesitate to appoint and confirm sexual predators to high office, including the Supreme Court. They will do so without even having any pragmatic need that could offer a justification for permitting that outcome. So arguably, ignoring the interests of women is a Republican objective.

The Republicans are not constrained at all by principle. Their only constraints appear to be whether they believe that they can get away with their conduct and whether they believe the nominee will loyally serve their partisan interests.

They have gotten away with confirming a grossly unsuitable nominee with the characteristics listed below. So, they will be emboldened in the future.

Provably guilty of sexually assaulting Dr. Ford, viewed in retrospect;
Was unavoidably probably guilty at the time they voted to confirm him, since Dr. Ford was at the July 1, 1982 house-party; and
Gave blatantly false testimony about the sexual-assault allegation, which should have been viewed as an admission of guilt when they voted to confirm him.

Since the Republicans’ ability to “get away with it” is their only constraint, the failure of the news media to report on the corroborating evidence for Dr. Ford’s accusation takes on even greater importance. The media failure should be unacceptable based only on journalistic principles, without regard to the impact of the failure.

However, that failure has been catastrophic given the freehand that it gave the Republicans to act without any moral constraint in confirming Justice Kavanaugh. They figuratively got away with murder by putting a sexual predator on the Supreme Court.

Justice Kavanaugh’s status as a sexual predator is current

I used the present tense in describing Justice Kavanaugh as a sexual predator intentionally. The sexual assault was not spontaneous. It was planned as a gang-rape of a minor girl. And, there were co-conspirators beyond the two boys who were visible to Dr. Ford.

He has engaged in a conspiracy to hide his conduct for approaching four decades. And he consciously re-victimized Dr. Ford during his confirmation hearings.

Justice Kavanaugh implied that she is delusional, and he encouraged his supporters to do the same. He even claimed that he’s the real victim. But his conduct is not due to a faulty memory. He is fully aware that he is guilty.

His supporters have continued to re-victimized Dr. Ford after the confirmation hearing. They continue to falsely claim that there is no corroborating evidence for her allegation. And they continue to characterize him as a victim. They will continue to do both indefinitely if they are not stopped.

Thus, Justice Kavanaugh continues to engage in predatory behavior towards Dr. Ford. His qualifications to be described as a sexual predator are not a thing of the past. They are up-to-date and current.

The Republican Judiciary Committee members viewed Kavanaugh as the victim, not Ford

The statements of Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee reflect a sentiment that Justice Kavanaugh was the victim of a Democratic witch-hunt. So, he is the real victim and not Dr. Ford.

However, that sentiment couldn’t have been honest. At a minimum, the senators had to know that Justice Kavanaugh was probably guilty of the sexual assault since the event Dr. Ford described was the July 1, 1982 house-party. They certainly knew that he had given false testimony about Dr. Ford’s allegation, which they should have viewed an admission of guilt.

Senator Graham’s Strategic Outburst

Senator Graham made the following statements in a confirmation hearing rant against the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats. He made his rant during his allocated time for questioning Justice Kavanaugh, which was supposed to be used by Rachel Mitchell to examine the judge.

Senator Graham’s comments appear to be directed to the Democrats at times and to Justice Kavanaugh at other times. (Emphasis added.)

Selected quotes from his rant

“If you wanted a FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020…
This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn’t have done what you’ve done to this guy…
This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap…
His integrity is absolutely unquestioned. He is the (sic) very circumspect in his personal conduct, harbors no biases or prejudices. He’s entirely ethical, is a really decent person. He is warm, friendly, unassuming. He’s the nicest person — the ABA…
To my Republican colleagues, if you vote no, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics. You want this seat? I hope you never get it…
I hope you’re on the Supreme Court, that’s exactly where you should be. And I hope that the American people will see through this charade. And I wish you well. And I intend to vote for you and I hope everybody who’s fair-minded will.”

The strategy behind Senator Graham’s outburst

I refer to Senator Graham’s rant as “strategic” because before he took over, the Republican questioning of Justice Kavanaugh was being done by Rachel Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell is a sex-crimes prosecutor who was hired by the Republicans to do their questioning of Dr. Ford and Justice Kavanaugh. Ms. Mitchell also wrote a report on Dr. Ford’s allegation. Her report will be the focus of Blog #9.

It was in response to Ms. Mitchell’s questioning that the dishonesty of Justice Kavanaugh’s testimony about Dr. Ford’s allegation became indisputable. Her reward for her competent questions was having her questioning of Justice Kavanaugh terminated. Her questioning was then replaced with baseless character attacks by Judiciary Committee Republicans on the Judiciary Committee Democrats, like Senator Graham’s rant.

Senator Graham’s diatribe against the Democrats appeared to be intended to prevent further questioning of Judge Kavanaugh by Ms. Mitchell. She had been questioning him about the most critical piece of evidence – his July 1, 1982 calendar entry. The judge had already given blatantly false testimony about the central fact regarding Dr. Ford’s allegation.

So, Senator Graham put a stop to Ms. Mitchell’s questioning. That shows he knew the significance of the July 1 house-party.

Since Ms. Mitchell and Justice Kavanaugh were supposed to be on the same side (i.e., Republican), he couldn’t be as rude and disruptive in responding to her questions as he was in responding to the Democratic senators’ questions. That constraint on his conduct contributed to her effectiveness in questioning him.

Senator Cornyn’s statement

The next Republican questioner of Justice Kavanaugh was Senator Cornyn, who stated (emphasis added):

“Judge, I can’t think of a more embarrassing scandal for the United States Senate since the McCarthy hearings. When the comment was about the cruelty of the process toward the people involved, and the question was asked: Have you no sense of decency? And I’m afraid we’ve lost that, at least for the time being.”

Senator Hatch’s statement

Senator Hatch continued the same theme (emphasis added):

“But the circus atmosphere that has been created since my Democratic colleagues first leaked Dr. Ford’s allegations to the media two weeks ago — after sitting on them for six weeks, I might add — has brought us the worst in our politics. It certainly has brought us no closer to the truth …
I hate to say this, but this is worse than Robert Bork, and I didn’t think it could get any worse than that. This is worse than Clarence Thomas. I didn’t think it could get any worse than that. This is a national disgrace, the way you’re being treated …
What we have are uncorroborated, unsubstantiated claims from his teenage years. Claims that every alleged eyewitness has either denied or failed to corroborate …
I do not mean to minimize the seriousness of the claims. Yes, they’ve been serious claims, but the search for truth has to involve more than bare assertions …
I understand the desire of my colleagues to tear down this man at any costs. I do understand it. But let’s at least be fair and look at the facts or the absence thereof.”

A timeline for Senate Republicans’ conduct

Going in they seemed to have a viable, but despicable defense strategy

In considering the all-in nature of the Republican defense of Justice Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, let’s acknowledge that going into the hearing, they had a seemingly viable, albeit unethical, strategy for defending against Dr. Ford’s allegation. That strategy was to deny that the event where Dr. Ford was sexually assaulted ever happened and to imply that she is delusional and imagined the whole thing.

That tactic should be banned from further use by public servants. By banned, I mean the press and public should be unmerciful with people who use it, including those who used it to protect Justice Kavanaugh. An alleged victim might be dishonest or have a different perspective about an interaction.

But the implication that an alleged victim is delusional should require bullet-proof evidence to say it or imply it. Implying that an alleged victim is delusional is more offensive than calling her a liar. It is a sexist and disgusting tactic.

The fact that Senator Collins is a woman should not exempt her from the consequences of having used this tactic when the delusional claim was not only baseless but false. Next to the viciousness of that strategy, falsely accusing their Democratic colleagues of being unethical and of threatening the foundations of our democracy by questioning Judge Kavanaugh’s suitability, pales in comparison.

But their planned defense substantively fell apart because of Justice Kavanaugh’s calendar

As I noted in Blog #1, the Republicans’ bold strategy substantively fell apart during the September 27, 2018 confirmation hearing, when attention was focused on the details of Justice Kavanaugh’s July 1, 1982 calendar entry. That development (i.e., their strategy imploding) was unexpected since there had been no public awareness of the existence of his calendars until the preceding day.

It was Justice Kavanaugh’s testimony that put the importance of his calendars into context. Given that context, his calendars provided corroboration for virtually all of Dr. Ford’s recollections and left no rational and honest basis for confirming him to the Supreme Court.

That development (i.e., their strategy substantively imploding) occurred before Senator Graham’s rant that interrupted Ms. Mitchell’s questioning of Justice Kavanaugh about his July 1, 1982 calendar entry. That development also preceded Senator Cornyn’s and Senator Hatch’s unhinged attacks on their Democratic colleagues.

That the Republican’s strategy had already imploded, means the over-the-top criticisms of their Democratic colleagues were absurd. Since their strategy had already imploded, their attacks on the Democrats were knowingly dishonest, and therefore despicable.

The Republicans pressed ahead even after their strategy imploded

The Republicans could have accepted that Judge Kavanaugh was not a suitable candidate for the Supreme Court. They could have simply found a qualified and suitable nominee. Instead, the Senate Republicans pressed ahead both with their disingenuous planned insults about the Senate Democrats and with their unethical planned attacks on Dr. Ford.

Senator Collins’ speech was eight days after the September 27, 2018 confirmation hearing. So, she and her colleagues had plenty of time to process and understand the critical evidence from the hearing. Given the attention paid to Justice Kavanaugh’s July 1, 1982 calendar entry during his testimony, it is not plausible that Senator Collins missed its importance, in my view. But she never mentioned it, because she was trying to hide its existence and significance.

Senator Graham, Senator Cornyn, Senator Hatch, Senator McConnell, Senator Grassley, and the other senators who voted to support Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation should also be presumed to have had the same knowledge of the critical facts as Senator Collins.

The Senate Republicans should all be viewed as having the same knowledge of the facts

They should have each reached the conclusions listed below, based on the evidence before them.

The correspondence between Dr. Ford’s description of the event where she was sexually assaulted and the details of Justice Kavanaugh’s July 1, 1982 calendar entry proves she was present at the house-party at Timmy’s on that date.
Justice Kavanaugh’s July 1, 1982 calendar entry confirms the details of Dr. Ford’s description of the house-party where she was sexually assaulted, except that she and Ms. Keyser were present.
Justice Kavanaugh repeatedly gave false and deceitful testimony when he denied that an event like the one described by Dr. Ford had ever occurred.
Given that Dr. Ford was provably at the July 1, 1982 house-party, the possibility that she is lying about having been with Justice Kavanaugh and Mr. Judge in the second-floor bedroom of Timmy’s house is virtually non-existent.
Justice Kavanaugh and Mr. Judge could not have forgotten about being in the bedroom with Dr. Ford when they were 17, and she was 15-years-old. So, they can’t have forgotten either the interaction with her in the bedroom, the July 1, 1982 house-party, or having met her.
Given Justice Kavanaugh’s knowingly false testimony that the event described by Dr. Ford never occurred, his denial of having assaulted her is not credible. That conclusion is reinforced by his false testimony that he doesn’t recall the interaction with her in the bedroom and that he doesn’t recall the July 1, 1982 house-party or having met Dr. Ford.

The broader lesson about Republicans and #metoo claims is, they can’t be trusted

The senators should have drawn the conclusions listed above without even taking account of Justice Kavanaugh’s 1982 confession by omitting Dr. Ford from his July 1, 1982 calendar entry. That confession provides an independent basis to conclude that Justice Kavanaugh is guilty of sexually assaulting Dr. Ford and of repeatedly giving false testimony concerning her allegation.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Senator Graham, Senator Grassley, Senator McConnell, Senator Collins, President Trump, Vice President Pence, White House Counsel McGahn, and the other Republican senators who voted to confirm Justice Kavanaugh, are equally deserving of being excoriated. Each of the senators’ votes was required to secure his confirmation.

Given the conclusions listed above that follow from the available evidence, it should have been impossible to vote for Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation, regardless of the standard of proof applied. So, the broader point for the public is that Republicans cannot be trusted to support women’s rights, victims’ rights, or the #metoo movement, regardless of their gender!

The scope of the Republicans’ immorality cannot be overstated. They violated Dr. Ford, a sexual assault victim, in public and on national TV by making knowingly false or baseless arguments to question her credibility. And they implied that she is delusional and simply imagined her sexual assault.

There was no mitigating circumstance for the Republicans’ conduct

The Senate Republicans were not serving as counsel in a criminal trial, in which Brett Kavanaugh faced prison and in which the use of their tactics might have been rationalized. They were participating in a judicial confirmation process in which only exceptionally qualified and suitable candidates should be nominated or confirmed.

Justice Kavanaugh’s only downside, from not being confirmed, was having to remain on the Court of Appeals, for which his conduct shows he is grossly unsuitable. The Republicans could simply have chosen an alternate nominee.

The Republicans’ actions in defending and confirming Justice Kavanaugh are not just a statement about them but are a comment about our broader culture and society. It should not be even remotely possible that, in the era of the #metoo movement, the Republicans would have dared to undertake such an outrageous public course of action, in dishonestly re-victimizing Dr. Ford. It should also not be possible that nearly two years later, their visible conduct would not only have gone unpunished but would still be unreported.

One media report perfectly captured the outrage represented by the Republicans’ conduct

Some of the best reporting I have found on the Kavanaugh proceedings is in Macleans Magazine, which ironically is a Canadian publication. They seem to have best captured the essence of the Republicans’ conduct. (Emphasis added.)

“No one on the GOP senate judiciary panel had a problem not believing her—or “believed” she was assaulted, but couldn’t reliably remember who had committed a crime that haunted her entire life. And that willing disbelief was the most chilling female exploitation of all.”
“There were some who argued that the Republicans should have just pulled Kavanaugh out, swapped in another easier-to-confirm judge with the same ultra-conservative bona fides the moment the sexual assault allegations came to light. But that’s missing the point. Those allegations and those smug lies are what clinched it for the judge.
The Republican party has laid out a new contract with America and it says: We will put them in their place. There are a number of “thems” the party seems intent on restoring to their prior positions, and a number of means being employed to get them back there. With Brett Kavanaugh, the misogyny is the message.”
Macleans Magazine, Tabatha Southey, October 13, 2018

The writer of those passages was not misled by the Republican coverup. They believed what their eyes told them, as we all should have.

Looking Forward

Blog #8 will examine the Republicans’ systematic approach for rejecting sexual-assault allegations made against their nominees. That system is the primary reason that the Republicans have been successful in conning the American public and press.

However, Blogs #7C and #7D have been added to the initially planned content of the series. They discuss the components of the Republican con job which has convinced the public and the press that there is no corroborating evidence for Dr. Ford’s allegation. They focus, in particular, on the role of a specific journalist in helping the Republicans to obscure the existence of corroborating evidence for Dr. Ford’s allegation.