A Resentful Man

One of the most important qualities essential for an effective jurist is impartiality and a character trait that can best be described as equanimity.  When considering someone for the Supreme Court of the United States, a lifetime appointment that will demand an open mind and unbiased consideration of all kinds of issues that will affect all of us for decades, equanimity is paramount.

What we saw yesterday from Brett Kavanaugh was decidedly not equanimity.

Kavanaugh simply lost his cool.  

It’s ok to be angry.  He had a right to be angry—his family and his life has been upended….maybe by his own hand, as events in our past somehow always rise up to bite us in the ass when we least expect it.  Whether or not he did or did not sexually assault Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is almost beside the point.  His appearance before the Judiciary Committee was revealing for other reasons.

First of all, he opened his remarks by showing his partisan hand as soon as he opened his mouth.  He angrily excoriated the Democratic members of the committee for engineering a character assassination ‘hit’ to ruin his chance for confirmation.  He blamed it on the Democrat’s search for retaliation for losing the 2016 election; for Donald Trump’s election; and as revenge on behalf of the Clintons!   With that statement we immediately saw his true partisan colors and what we can expect if he ever gets confirmed.  Equanimity and unbiased decision making will not happen from this man.

Secondly, he revealed multiple times that the last thing he wants to encourage is an open and thorough investigation of the evidence that will inform any decisions the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate will make.  Supported in this effort by the refusal of the Republican majority and Senator Grassley in particular to mandate an FBI investigation into the facts of this allegation, he avoided and side stepped any imploring by various senators to support the FBI’s further investigation. 

Here we have a sexual assault allegation by a clearly competent believable victim who names a person who was potentially an eye witness to the assault in the room where it occurred, and there is a clear effort to bury that potential evidence by the majority of the Committee and the nominee.  It is clear that Kavanaugh and the Republicans do not want the eye-witness, Mark Judge, to be interviewed.  Why?  I think they are afraid he might reveal truths under oath that none of them want to deal with.  With repeated entreaties by Senator Durbin and others to support further FBI investigation, Kavanaugh responded with contempt, anger, obfuscation, pleading innocence, and evasive answering of questions.  Ultimately he chose not to answer Durbin’s question as to whether he personally thought it would be a good idea to have the FBI investigate.

More than that, Kavanaugh exhibited an attitude of arrogance, bitterness, sarcasm and belligerence to the questioners on the Democratic side of the dais.  When asked about his proclivity for drinking, he rambled on and on about how he ‘liked beer, drank beer, maybe drank too much beer, liked beer and drank beer’.  When asked what the meaning of ‘boofed’ meant when it appeared in his diary/calendar, he lied by saying it was a word for flatulence or farting.   The dictionary defines ‘boofed’ as ‘having sexual intercourse with someone’ or, as the Urban Dictionary defines it,  ‘ingesting alcohol or drugs anally’. 

All of this is in contrast to the riveting testimony of Dr. Ford, who presented as competent, considered, and most of all, honest.

What must be judged from all this is whether judges on the bench of the Supreme Court have an allegiance to honesty.  Can we really say that about Brett Kavanaugh?  Can we say that Kavanaugh has the proper character to render unbiased opinions on the major issues facing our nation?  Can we say that he has a character with equanimity?  After his attacks on the Democratic members of the Committee, does he show the correct temperament for a Supreme Court Justice? 

Separate from that, there is the simple question—If Dr. Ford as a credible witness says that she is 100% sure that Kavanaugh was the sexual attacker and Brett Kavanaugh says that he absolutely denies ever being at the party or committing the act, who is lying?

Who do you believe?

Yesterday was a sad day for the United States of America.  It was a sad day for the Supreme Court of the United States.  The trust of the American people in the Supreme Court is not important enough to the Judiciary Committee to follow the regular order of process that is fair.  Finally, the American Bar Association submitted a letter to the Judiciary Committee requesting a postponement of the vote to let the FBI do a full investigation.  Senator Grassley rejected the request as ‘not necessary’.

Kavanaugh will probably be confirmed and the Justices on the highest court of the land will include a man who was jammed onto the court in spite of questions that will persist about his veracity, his character and his equanimity.  Perhaps the only character trait he will bring to the court will be resentment.  How sad for all of us.

Lindsey Graham says that this whole affair is not about the truth, it’s about delay and destruction.  I actually agree with him, but unfortunately his party is the instrument of destruction and despair.