The Ford-Kavanaugh hearing

The hearing on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination featuring his own testimony and that of Christine Blasey Ford took place on Thursday. It was quite an event. The controversy over Kavanaugh's nomination has clearly become an important moment in public awareness of sexual assault and issues surrounding it.

There were obviously a number of news reports and commentaries:

• Emma Brown et al, Charges and denials fuel an emotional hearing as Kavanaugh nomination hangs in the balance Washington Post 09/27/2018
• Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos, Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford Square Off in Emotional Hearing With Court in Balance New York Times 09/27/2018

The full hearings are currently available from PBS Newshour, Brett Kavanaugh responds to allegations of sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford 09/27/2018:

Forensic psychologist Karen Franklin has a great post at her In The News blog on sexual assault and the difficulties victims face when they report them, Kavanaugh exposed: Sexual assault as masculine theater 09/25/2018.

I don't get quite as enthusiastic as some of my Democratic friends do about conservative Republicans criticizing Trump and his supporters. But Jennifer Rubin's observations about Kavanaugh's ugly performance are worth noting (The most telling moment: Kavanaugh goes after Sen. Klobuchar Washington Post 09/27/2018):

First, he refused to call for an FBI investigation (even when Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois invited him to ask it of White House counsel Donald McGahn). When Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) questioned about his friend Mark Judge, Kavanaugh slipped and said “you’d have to ask [Judge]”, who of course the Republicans refuse to summon as a witness. The refusal to get the facts is both a telling admission of concern about what they would find and a violation the judicial goal of truth-seeking. It’s a political calculation, exactly what you don’t want to see from a judge.

The worst moment was his confrontation with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) who questioned him about blackout drinking. She explained that she understood alcohol abuse because her father was an alcoholic. Have you ever blacked out? she asked. He sneered in response, “Have you?” It was a moment of singular cruelty and disrespect. One saw a flash in the exchange with Klobuchar the same sense of entitlement, cruelty and lack of simple decency that Christine Blasey Ford allegedly experienced way back when, the memory seared in her brain of two obnoxious teens laughing at her ordeal.

Ezra Klein provides a worthwhile commentary on the hearings in The Ford-Kavanaugh sexual assault hearings, explained Vox 09/27/2018.

Richard Wolffe comments on the judge's testimony in Brett Kavanaugh's credibility has not survived this devastating hearing The Guardian 09/28/2018:

He was hot and bothered from the outset, fiddling with his shirt cuffs, sniffing incessantly, anxiously unscrewing small bottles of water, spraying accusations across the political landscape.

He lapsed into his old role as a political hack, accusing a wide range of actors for his suffering: the media, the Democrats on the judiciary committee, a vast leftwing conspiracy, the Clintons. He predicted political Armageddon as sex was weaponized to destroy reputations, notably his own, as he was just on the verge of success.

One question I have after the hearings: Can everyone who is not a Republican now stop pretending that Sen. Lindsey Graham is anything but a rightwing Republican warmongerer and generally a nasty piece of work? (Jon Queally, He Wouldn't Say a Word to Christine Blasey Ford But Unhinged Lindsey Graham Breaks Silence, Has 'Full-Blown Temper Tantrum' to Defend Kavanaugh Common Dreams 09/27/2018)