KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARINGS: CROOKED LAWYERS, COWARDLY SENATORS AND AN ECLIPSE OF JUSTICE
By William J. Dodwell October 1, 2018
Christine Blasey Ford
Ever since Christine Blasey Ford came forward she has been coddled ad nauseum by the Republicans and, of course, the Democrats. This includes the Republican senators on the committee, Brett Kavanaugh himself, the interrogator for the Republicans, Rachel Mitchell, and even the president. Indeed, the Republicans have been loath to criticize Ms. Ford at all out of fear of appearing to bully her and thus alienate women against confirmation in the court of public opinion, and as voters in the midterm elections. As such, Senate Judiciary Committee leader, Senator Grassley, bent over backwards to accommodate Ms. Ford’s conditions for testifying, except for an unprecedented demand that the accused appear for questioning first. Meanwhile, the Democrats on the committee and Ford’s lawyers subvert the process through delay tactics in the hope of extending the process to the November elections and thus end Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Under questioning, Ms. Ford appeared weak and childish, but nonetheless credible. In fact, many say she seemed somewhat imbalanced. Besides her odd demeanor before the committee, her statements about her state of mind, supposedly attributed to Kavanaugh’s alleged attack, are telling. One example concerns her paranoia in installing a second front door on her house against her husband’s adamant objection. In addition, some speculate that hypnosis administered during a session with her therapist might have created a false memory involving Kavanaugh. Would any Republican suggest that she submit to a psychiatric examination that might call into question her wholly unsubstantiated claims about the incident in question in the face of Kavanaugh’s categorical denials? After all, Democrats cite Kavanaugh’s alleged vulnerability to blacking out during drinking as a taint on the veracity of his firm denials. Of course, Republicans would not dare challenge Ms. Ford.
Her lawyers
As mentioned, the Democrat game plan is to delay the process past the midterm elections. This affords the possibility of snuffing out Kavanaugh’s candidacy, as well as any other conservative nominee, through a newly elected Democrat Senate majority in January. (A confirmation during the lame duck session is very unlikely.) That Democrat majority could further diminish the prospect of a conservative nominee by keeping the vacancy unfilled until a possible Democrat presidential victory in 2020.
To that end, Ms. Ford’s lawyers, recommended to her by Senator Feinstein in a most unorthodox intervention, have been quite instrumental. They stalled Ms. Ford’s appearance in Washington for ten days while insisting on outlandish demands and lying about her fear of flying. As to the latter, her lawyers withheld from her Senator Grassley’s offer to fly a representative to her home in California for the questioning. Her counsel also refused to present Ms. Ford’s medical records of the alleged assault. And, those lawyers did not present to the committee the complete notes of Ms. Ford’s therapist concerning a 2012 session. Ms. Ford says she mentioned the incident to the therapist then, but admits that Kavanaugh’s name did not appear in the notes. One has to wonder whether these lawyers are the culprits who leaked to the Washington Post Ms. Ford’s letter she sent to Feinstein, thus denying her the privacy she coveted by thrusting her into the public spotlight for purely political purposes.
Committee senators
No Republican on the committee questioned the dishonesty of Ms. Ford’s lawyers in trying to delay the process, because by extension that would impugn Ms. Ford. Might that restraint also be out of some perverse sense of professional courtesy to fellow lawyers? Rather than confront Ms. Ford and invite accusations of bullying, the all-male Republican majority on the committee hired a female prosecutor to interrogate her, while those members remained totally silent. What cowardice. The search for truth should transcend political optics, which were exaggerated anyway.
Most reprehensibly, Democrat Senator Feinstein concealed from the committee Ms. Ford’s letter to her about Kavanaugh’s alleged offense for some six weeks, raising the issue just before a committee vote on confirmation was to be taken. This was the most egregious delay tactic. It forced additional hearings and another FBI inquiry that could have occurred much earlier. Now the current one-week FBI investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh could raise additional implausible or bogus allegations in an extended probe that could run out the clock on the confirmation process.
Committee Democrats and Ms. Ford’s lawyers subverted the process through corruption and character assassination amid the total absence of evidence supporting the complainant. And Republicans lacked the courage to call foul on the lawyers’ dishonesty and were too timid to effectively challenge the accuser. In an eleventh hour flourish Senator Lindsey Graham forcefully denounced the attacks on Kavanaugh to good effect. But it was not nearly enough. As many have said, if these hearings are prologue, justice in America is seriously endangered.
©2018 William J. Dodwell