So who is telling the truth? You listened to their words, you heard the sharp questions, and one way or another the vote is on the way. Somehow through the inferno of that hearing, members of the U.S. Senate will have to come up with a decision about whether Brett Kavanaugh becomes a Supreme Court Justice.
On the Republican side, the goal was to bracket the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford as pure hearsay; a collection of smoldering memories fanned into flames by Democrats intent on burning Kavanaugh’s nomination to the ground. It was a delicate task, to be sure. Ford told a compelling tale of herself as a young woman, cornered and pawed by drunken, laughing young men – one of whom she says, was Kavanaugh. Questioned by an independent sex crimes prosecutor brought in by Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she defended her memory. But GOPers steadily pushed the idea that whatever happened (if anything) happened a long time ago, has not been backed up by evidence, and simply can not be sufficient grounds to incinerate a person’s career.
On the Democratic side, the goal was the polar opposite, of course. Democratic lawmakers lavished praise on Ford for courageously speaking up, even as Kavanaugh denied her accusations. Then they added fuel to the bonfire around Kavanaugh, implying he was a frequent, nasty, violent, blackout drunk, as Kavanaugh sat stewing. And when he pushed back, he pushed hard; arguing such claims were based on nothing and driven more by partisan rage than any search for truth.
We saw anger. We saw tears. We saw cheap shots. It was in short, all very messy, very bitter, and laced throughly with pure politics on both sides; the kind of politics that make Americans of all stripes, all across the country, despise Washington.
But what do we really know as the smoke is clearing? He told one story. She told another. And what don’t we know? Who will be vindicated when the vote is finally taken.
