Brace yourself, America, for a political sideshow unseen since Anita Hill famously testified about pubic hairs during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Christine Blasey Ford, a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, now says that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh behaved badly when they were in high school.
She has accused Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed during a house party in Maryland in the early 1980s, attempting to remove her clothes and putting his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. At the time of the alleged incident, Ford was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17, she said, adding that Kavanaugh was drunk.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” Ford said. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”
With a Senate committee vote on the nomination pending Thursday, many senators including our own Republican, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, says the accuser deserved to be heard before that vote.
“Senator Gardner believes that the Senate Judiciary Committee needs to interview Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh without delay to gather as many facts as possible.”
We agree she needs to be interviewed by the committee ASAP to get her side of the story we’ve only read about so far in a media that can’t stand the man who nominated Kavanaugh.
We’re not convinced that Ford herself should appear publicly as part of the confirmation process in front of the committee, because it will only lead to a dog-and-pony show like the one we previously referenced.
The behavior Ford describes is disturbing, even if it did happen 40-years ago among high schoolers. We would be more concerned if this was a pattern of behavior exhibited, in say, the last decade, or two, when Kavanaugh was an adult.
Yes Ford is a Democratic activist, but that aside, the committee should at least interview her to determine whether her accusations should become part of the record.