It's a sick, repellent joke that Kavanaugh has been chosen by a president who revels and boasts about his own sexual assaults specifically to strip American women of the right to control their own bodies while he protects the Groper In Chief from the impeachment proceedings he salivated over pursuing with the Clintons.
He's as disgusting, compromised and lying as Trump. Only we can't get rid of him in 4 years.
218
1. Anita Hill and her accusations were utter garbage is they completely fell apart.
2. You should not believe any accusation without actual proof. That does not mean it should be dismissed but saying Kavanaugh is guilty based simply on an accusation is reprehensible.
3. Democrats are perverting the very core concepts of justice with this circus that is happening atm around these charges.
4. I do not care about what Ford believes happened, I care about what actually happened. If she can show beyond a reasonable doubt that Kavanaugh did what she claims he did, then I will believe her.
5. Finally, God forbid if she made this up and it is proven she did, I hope she is hounded for the rest of her life. Kavanaugh will be simply due to an unsubstantiated accusation and that is not justice.
34
I completely agree with this. I sometimes cannot believe the difference between the way the Watergate hearings were conducted (much more bipartisan) and what we have come to under Trump and his insane, obscene base. No one is out to destroy Judge Kavanaugh, attempted rape is not average male teenage behavior and just seeing now what Dr. Ford is being subjected to is more than enough to understand why Senator Feinstein respected Dr. Ford’s wish to remain anonymous.
The Republicans big push to ram this nomination down America’s throat as quickly as possible without a proper hearing or an investigation of Dr. Ford’s allegations (after the way they behaved with President Obama’s last nomination to the Supreme Court) is beyond what I could have believed could happen. But since Trump was elected it appears that anything goes.
185
Great job, Maureen, thanks for this essay, and the importance of keeping in mind the context of these events. They're not isolated incidents, but part of the strategy of the Republican party since they signed a pact with the Devil, probably 40 years ago. Their pick for president is a perfect shining jewel for what they've become. All I can say is RIP GOP.
161
Reading the comments, one question I can’t really answer is: where are all those right wing folks, with integrity and moral values that do not consider this GOP leadership adequate to lead America?
How is it possible to see a victory in the appointment to the SCOTUS of Mr. Kavanaugh?
Why did the political agenda become a priority above those same values it should represent?
133
I'm still confused as how anyone can objectivly look at this whole thing and see justice? Bad things have happened to women in the past so judge Kavanaugh must also be guilty? She is a woman so she must be correct in the account? Oh no that isn't sexist at all... so as it stands now not one person can corroborate her story. Everyone she said was at the party with her has come back and said they were not. I would like to hear from liberals out there, can she be wrong? That is a serious question? In your minds can judge Kavanaugh be innocent? I sincerely believe Dr Ford belives her own story. I also know that people create false menories all the time. Not because people want to lie and intentionally misremember their own past but, that is just how our brains work. 36 years is no friend to anyone's memory. I will leave you with this, the burden of proof is on the accuser. Extraordinary claims requir extraordinary proof.
31
As one who contributed to this horrid mess that is American politics through her constant hammering of the Clintons and Bushes with nicknames, innuendos and nasty comments, this columnist has no standing to lecture anyone about the state of our political culture.
98
Just because a woman with a repressed memory states that Brett Kavanaugh does not necessarily make it the truth. We have been through several recent incidents where false rape claims were made against the Duke lacrosse team and a UVA frat.
Everyone says Dr. Ford has no motive, how about getting even for his mother foreclosing on her parents home? How about the fact that she is an anti-Trump activist? Why is her entire legal team and advisors associated with Soros funded organizations? Why would she state she wants to state her story and then make conditions that she knew would never be met?
I can accept that she believes that what she claims is factual. What I can't accept is the fact that people who are suppose to weigh the facts have already decided that Kavanaugh is guilty. That include Maureen Dowd.
31
I'm desperately searching for any intellectual honest liberal to just admit that Dr. Ford, although she might not even realize it, is being victimized by democrat operatives and pro-abortion groups who could care less about Kavanaugh’s qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court; rather, she is their poster child to protect abortion rights.
23
@Paul Schlacter
Who are these "pro-abortiom groups you speak of??
95
Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for your piece. It is so true on so many levels. We must vote the offenders out of office, republican or democrat.
40
It is almost an unrelated subject, but the more I look, the less I am worried that abortion could ever become illegal again in the United States. Even the most right wing Justice, Clarence Thomas, he seems to only think that there is nothing in the Constitution that protects the right to an abortion. Which seems logical to me. So there is nothing in the Constitution protecting it.
It seems that the only risk to abortion rights is in crazy right wing states with electorates that elect fruitcake politicians. Places where I would detest the majority of my neighbors and not want to live.
But we are a long, long, long way from the Supreme Court outlawing abortion in the entire 50 states, I think. Even Clarence Thomas, he would not be for that, I think.
4
If I were to remember back decades to the year that this incident occurred, I know exactly what my mother would have told me.
She would have told me that I shouldn't have been there in the situation with those older boys at that hour after having been drinking. The question "What did you expect?" would likely have figured into the conversation at some point. She would have told me that I was lucky it wasn't worse, meaning lucky that I wasn't actually raped. She would have emphatically discouraged me from reporting the incident to anyone, because law enforcement wouldn't do anything to the boy and because I would be subject to salacious gossip for the rest of my time in school and perhaps thereafter. She would have grounded me or taken other punitive action for breaking her rules. While she would have hugged me to dry my tears, her principal reaction would have been dismay that I did not know that "this is how boys are" and relief that I was not raped.
Even if I had reported it, the gossip at school would have had it that I was chasing the boy, who was older, that I changed my mind after first being willing, and that I had "no morals." That's a pretty heavy burden to place on the shoulders of a distraught 15-year-old child.
I am fortunate that I did not have to deal with that situation. I am angry that others cannot put themselves in her shoes and see why she did not report this.
245
All four people named by Christine Blasey-Ford have given sworn statements to the Senate under penalty of perjury that Kavanaugh is completely innocent and/or the alleged assault never happened.
The latest, Leland Ingham Keyser is a lifelong friend of CBF who attests she's never met Brett Kavanaugh and never attended a party with him (where CBF was or was not present.)
The charge is baseless it's time to end this farce.
23
So very truthful but we cannot despair. It has fallen to women, at this critical juncture in history to save the world from descending further into barbarism. Sorry fellows, but you have never seen warriors the likes of us.
88
Given the evidence surrounding Georgetown Prep (thanks to Mr. Kavanaugh's friend Mr. Judge), it seems appropriate to simply ask the nominee to name ten high school classes that he remembers taking--and what his grades were for each. In fact, given his similarly-inclined fraternity at Yale, the same question might be asked of his college years. Let's be clear: Most Supreme Court nominees do not rise to their positions through their own, lonely hard work. Rather, they are installed to these positions throughout their life by white male peers such as Mr. Hatch and Mr. Grassley. In this particular installation we are not only seeing (again) how the process works, but thanks to Mr. Judge and others, we are getting a glimpse of the interesting swamp that produced Mr. Kavanaugh and others like him. Instead of castigating Mr. Judge, we should commend him for his reporting.
48
One Thomas on the SCOTUS is one too many. Dr. Ford is believable. Trump` nominee is strictly to protect his crime family when impeachment action gets to the SCOTUS.
65
Bravo Maureen Dowd -- if you had done your usual mocking cynicism, my heart would definitely have broken just a little bit more. Thank you for your straight up, stand up, sharply detailed disgust.
34
I apologize for accidentally sending my message omitting Dr. Ford's last name.
1
So much for draining the swamp.
20
Why does Maureen Down deserve all of these accolades? Does anyone out there remember all of her meanspirited columns denigrating Hillary Clinton. It was Maureen Down who let Donald Trump fly under the radar right into the Oval Office. It seems that Donald Trump isn't the only red headed menace out there.
82
@sharon5101 Exactly. Very well put.
19
Sorry I meant Maureen Dowd. The spell check is working overtime today.
10
Brava, Maureen!
5
I’m really sick of Mitch McConnell. He claims blocking Merreck Garland is his biggest accomplishment. He then thunders to a partisan crowd that Kavanaugh will be the next Justice on the Supreme Court. If Kavanaugh did what he’s accused of then I guess sexual assault and lying about it is OK with Mitch.
One of Mitch’s biggest disgraces is not doing any oversight of the President 45.
108
I too feel sick to my stomach when I remember Anita Hill and the treatment given to her in the Clarence Thomas hearings. Two senators, Hatch and Specter, were the worst offenders. Hatch will probably have that same sneer on his face when Dr. Blasely testifies. Lest we forget!
80
Apparently, contrary to MSM reports, the Senate is taken sworn statements under penalty of perjury from witnesses.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/third-named-witness-rejects-kavana...
6
Unfortunately, What Ms. Dowd believes cannot be taken as evidence. In a perfect world we would be able to immediately tell if someone is telling the truth and there would not be any need for rules of evidence or due process. However, the world is not perfect and people are very complex creatures that have all kinds of good and bad traits and motives. rules of evidence or due process are essential if we want to maintain the rule of law, even as we know that sometimes there are mistakes. Disregarding them can turn democracy into a totalitarian regime, not unlike the USSR, China, Iran Cuba and many others.
10
Trump presents an extreme example of those in power whose use of words are poisonous to society because they are not founded in truth nor based on just the just goals necessary for an enduring and flourishing society. Reflected is the reccurring struggle of each generation to choose between me and mine, us and ours, or in those actions which benefit all, grounded by the daily concrete act of trying to live with integrity, in accord with one’s conscience.
9
Despite the fact that a strong majority of Americans are screaming "No! Stop!", Mitch McConnell has told us Republicans will "plow through" this confirmation whether we want it or not.
Apparently this is just who Republicans are, and what they do. In November, we must neuter the GOP.
73
When I was younger (74 now) there was actually a viable two party system. We need to go back there. Let's vote to get the current Republican leadership out at all levels. They are despicable. Their daughters and granddaughters will read about them in the history books. Correction their sons and grandsons will also be ashamed of them. That will give the party time to get back to an ethical and caring place. I disagreed with John McCain on much but never doubted his human decency. The hypocrites who mourned at his funeral have no conscience.
63
So much concern that Kavanaugh's life is being ruined by these allegations, and that this is an awful precedent for men across the land. Well, if so concerned that Dr. Ford is making up this story, why is there no hue and cry demanding an FBI investigation beforehand, to provide the Senators with some objective evidence that can be used to arrive at a determination grounded in verifiable facts? Dr. Ford wants that investigation, why do the Judge and Senate Republicans persistently decline?
61
There are numerous conservative judges Republicans could nominate instead of Kavanaugh. Doesn't it make you wonder why they are so determined to force this particular justice through? Could it be his favorable opinions regarding the office of the President, and how it cannot be held accountable in law? Has a deal already been struck in case Mueller brings an indictment against Trump?
58
@Chris Just a guess, but I imagine the hearings would go swimmingly for the nominee, then at the last possible moment, an accusation of horrible, despicable behavior would be made by someone we had never heard of before, and who had absolutely no evidence. The nominee would then be disgraced and we could move on the next one. And so on.
12
Our system of justice has been completely and utterly compromised by ideology and politics. Very sad.
25
If Hillary had only won the election we would not be going through any of this sordid affair.
Probably, if Hillary had nominated Bernie Sanders as her VP she would have gotten elected. Instead she selected Tim Kaine, an ideological doppelgänger, who brought nothing to the table. In essence, she deliberately chose to narrow her base rather than expand it to include progressives. That’s political malpractice on a huge score. Even Reagan knew to selected his strongest advisory from the primary process in GHWB so his wing had reason to show up on Election Day. It’s almost as if Hillary would rather lose to Trump than give progressives a seat at the table.
I get tons of hate responses whenever I point this out to Hillary’s faithful and see lots of responses blaming progressives who either didn’t show up or didn’t punch a ticket for Hillary. That blame, while warranted, pales compared to Hillary’s decision. No single decision by any progressive to not vote for her equates to her decision not to expand her base to include them. (According to Michael Moore, roughly 90k Michiganders voted a democratic ticket yet still did not punch Hillary’s ticket, not sure if that’s true but it reinforces my point).
But, imagine she picked Bernie, she gets another 300k votes in the rust belt. She could have then selected Anita Hill to sit on the court in the seat vacated by Scalia. Now that would be serving justice to the Justices. Instead we have this revolting situation.
34
I doubt Bernie would have accepted.
18
The rush to the hearing, without a proper investigation ploy was used by the prosecutor following my shooting by my ex, who was a former police reservist. The case was dismissed within the hour as "accidental" based on my ex's story, even though he refused to open his gun safe. The responding police neglected to photograph my other injuries, showing I was beaten before I was shot. They managed to photograph his badge plaque, on the wall. The Police Dept. in Spokane, WA., the city to which I was life flighted, forced them to reopen the case and the shooter took a plea bargain.
38
This is not about Dr. Blasey, it is about Kavanaugh. Her allegations may be the most salient reason to reject him as lacking in the requisite character and experience, but they are only the most recent. Let's not forget about the still-unanswered questions about his $200K credit card debt, and its sudden disappearance; whether he used stolen emails while serving in the Bush Administration; and his supposedly evolving - but consistently politically expedient - positions on the scope of executive privilege. As to judicial temperament, he showed his true colors when he pointedly turned away from the father of a murder victim when he was extending his hand, and in his evasive answers to simple, direct questions from Sen. Harris about whether he had recently talked with anyone at Kasowitz's law firm about the Mueller investigation. Let's also consider the dishonorable way he has responded to Dr. Blasey's allegations: by acceding to a process that railroads through his nomination, rather than by calling for a full inquiry by the FBI.
John Adams wrote: "The judges, therefore, should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness, and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men."
Dr. Blasey's evidence that Kavanaugh lacks exemplary morals is important; the many other items are as well.
96
It could also be argued that this is not about Kavanaugh, it's about Trump. And so are the upcoming midterm elections.
12
@Sanderson, Well said. Thank you
24
Such revolting development.
I suspect to the powerful people behind all of this, Kavanaugh’s flaws aren’t a bug they’re a feature. Not just his sexual perdition but also his desire for status, lack of personal financial discipline, ability to compromise, lie, & commit perjury, r all features, & yet rather humdrum compared to Trump.
Kavanaugh’s flaws will do unto him as Ms. Dowd pointed out Ted Kennedy’s own track recorded kept him from active participation. The same might be said of Thomas who has kept his mouth shut for nearly 30 years, except in the one issue he had standing, racial. A less deserving Kavanaugh is more easily controled by those who got him there.
It’s important to point out that Democrats, the more liberal wing of American politics, have won the popular vote 6 out of the last 7 elections. Yet there is a majority of Republican nominated justices on the court.
In essence minority rule over the majority of Americans and it is not democratic and ultimately the Supreme Court will lose its moral authority (as if Bush v Gore, Citizens United and Arizona Free Enterprise Club hadn’t done it already). By the time Kavanaugh gets to write opinions saying that abortion is unlawful killing, and contraceptives are a form of pre-abortion, Americans won’t be listening to the court or a government they didn’t elect. Historically the only time the Court has not acted along political lines is when the institution itself has been threatened. But not always (Dredd Scott).
54
'I will find a way, or make one.' That is the Holton Arms motto. Blasey, in spite of her hesitation and desire to remain anonymous, knows at this point, this is her charge. Her truth must be told.
'What happens at Georgetown prep, stays at Georgetown prep.' This is what Kavanaugh took away from his school.
I expect no less of our Senate now than that they also draw serious lessons from their last foyer into this weighted issue in the 90's, give these two world views their hearing, and then decide the fate of our court. Beyond a doubt, we are all watching.
23
Wow.
Dowd aimed right between the eyes and, with her long memory of details past, hit the target square on.
Did you know Clarence Thomas spoke with friends about attending porno theaters? I didn't till I read this.
But, I did watch much of Hill's testimony this past week and she described a man similar to what his friends recounted.
But, I have a larger question.
Toward what end a very conservative court?
When they enable this:
- 90% of us decry the runaway money in our politics. But, the court promotes it.
- consumer protection against bad, greedy corporate decisions - the court rejects it.
- worker's ability to have some parady in negotiations with employers - to freely organize. The court makes it harder.
- protection of the environment against the short-sighted profit of big polluters. The court sides with profit.
- the huge issue of climate change and government ability to fight it. No help from the court.
- the basic right to vote without malicious meddling from one party that does better when only the most privileged cast a ballot. The court is an ally in the effort.
- the freedom to reproduce… to choose when and with whom. Can you imagine government putting its hands on that! Conservative court says OK!
So, fellow Americans, what's in it for you?
Why do we need a far right leaning Supreme Court?
59
It's been so very long since I've agreed with Maureen Dowd on anything, so it's good to once again say "great column, Ms. Dowd." I was glued to the TV during the Thomas confirmation hearings and kept every issue of the NY Times that reported on the hearings. I've never forgiven Senator Biden for his role in humiliating Ms. Hill and I never will. If we get another sexual predator (and I doubt anyone believes Thomas these days, not even Senator Danford who sponsored Thomas) on the Supreme Court, like Dr. Ford, I will be looking for somewhere else to live.
24
Yes, the Capitol is covered in mud again. I’m sick to my stomach too. But this time, to my surprise (I’m a lifelong
Democrat) it is the Democrats who are making me heave. They’re the ones with mud on their shoes. Again. (Don’t remind me of the Anita Hill soap opera, a national embarrassment I had managed to forget.) The Democrats’ behavior throughout the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings has been indecent. (If you don’t believe me, read Ruth Bader Ginsberg.) As far as I’m concerned, the Democrats can crawl in a hole with the rest of Washington and leave me alone until the next election. I won’t be voting for anyone. I will be voting AGAINST whoever I hate the most. Right now, Republican smugness is running neck and neck with the puling hypocrisy of the Democrats (those disappointed tyrants). But the Democrats seem to be winning.
8
The idea that these guys who attacked Hill will be once again given a chance to gnaw on another women is repulsive. I hope that Blasey realizes that she is standing on the shoulder of a giant. In fact, can Blasey bring Hill to the hearing? I'd love that visual/message -- we're here, we will be heard, and we're not backing down.
Yes, I am biased. But that said, I still know that this is OUR Supreme Court and we need a court that can represent all. We should all want wisdom there, not shady characters who are getting by. If we trash the Supreme Court again (with another Thomas), then we continue to perpetuate lies about equality for all. Look around, we're kind of unstable. It seems to me that wisdom would choose to right the most important ship in the land.
55
Love the name of this article. As though the accusation by Dr. Ford should automatically and without due process or any proof be taken as 100% fact. How about the FACT that none of the people Dr. Ford has named have backed up her story?
I am sick to my stomach of the political pandering and hit jobs and character assassinations committed by the Left.
14
But i bet the political pandering, hit jobs, and character assassinations from the Right don't bother you at all.
45
As an old white guy now, I can say I wholly believed Hill then and Ford now. And I say that as a person who still believes, based on personal experience and observations, that lots of women make things up towards their own benefit. Not so Hill and Ford.
Perhaps the most alarming thing about the current GOP is their entirely smug sense of entitlement and the righteousness of the Kavanaugh appointment. Never mind the disgusting showboating of the Bork (a creep who fired a special prosecutor) and Thomas (a blatant shameless liar) nominations.
I found Kavanaugh's evasive testimony in the hearings to be more of the same dissembling that is routine for religious conservatives: never mind what I do or say, but instead focus on my impeccable smugness and self-righteousness.
We are many steps closer to a theocracy in this country than I had ever thought possible.
51
Let any man or woman who had not acted according to the norms of the day in college cast the first stone. I suspect that the entire government would be vacated.
Should Jimmy Carter have been impeached because he “had lust in my heart?”
The new dystopia.
8
Ms. Dowd, this is one of your best columns to date. It warms my heart that you and so many of your colleagues at the Times are grasping the angst, frustration, and outrage felt by thousands upon thousands of women throughout our 50 states. Just as I feel Watergate pales in comparison to Russiagate, and although I will never forget the mistreatment of Anita Hill, what is happening to Dr. Blasey has sunk to a nadir of misogyny and sexual exploitation. After 30 years, what have we women accomplished? Yes, a bit, but not nearly enough. We still face the ruthlessness of not only our DC politicians but also our male counterparts in a skewed society. "Get that woman out of our way," they exclaim. "How dare her usurp our god-given power to objectify her!" This must end. And I have to say, if Kavanaugh is confirmed with his stand on Roe vs Wade, his bigotry toward our indigenous peoples from Alaska to Hawaii and beyond, his nativism in general, his willingness to give carte blanche to executive powers, until my dying day I will be relentless in my efforts to clean up shop from Trump, to Grassley, to McConnell on down.
43
As with, a lot of women this is draining my attention.
Personally, I don't assume that Kavanaugh is a sexual predator or alcoholic. I question his politics, but also his willingness to level with the public about his deeply held opinions ( about his opinions as rendered to past administrations).
The fact that drunken attacks on young women were and are common, and that the one alleged took place years ago are terrible arguments for closing your eyes and ears.
A man may have committed an act when he was way past the age of reason, which, if it happened, showed that he either regarded women as objects to use, or that he was so much under the influence of peers that he would act in ways that completely disregarded the humanity of the young woman.
Let's put it this way: such allegations should be refuted if possible before he is installed in a position where he has power over the 50.8% of the population that is female.
How, for those who think this is unfair, would investigating the allegations destroy him? Do you think they a ARE true but should be ignored? Do you think that someone who reached this level of power is too fragile to answer questions?
How does he gain if he is appointed with this huge cloud of doubt?
Computer off.
35
Mayreen, I love your column and your wit but, I can't help but remember your biting criticism of Hillary during the campaign. Maybe if the hate Hillary volume wasnt so shrill, we wouldnt be stuck with this monster in our white house.
24
@GG Canner How ironic you support a woman who didn't allow other women who had complaints against her husband to be heard and believed.
8
I always like to remind people that over 50% of white women voted for trump. Trump represents the true America. This is what America wants and the polls this November will bear this out. America = White Power. Nothing more, nothing less. the poor refuse to vote - they have given up, add gerrymandering to the equation and it is even more bleak. Whites are not "dying out" they are teaching their white children to behave as they have behaved and it is working. Young white girls are taught to expect to be raped, as men cannot control themselves and white women are taught to accept this as biologically true. Their machine is as strong as it as it has ever been. And no, a bunch of social sciences majors cannot change that.
Bottom line : the poor do not vote and white women love trump.
16
I'm also sick to my stomach over the willingness of certain Americans to throw out the assumption of innocence when it is politically convenient. While I understand a woman's hesitation in coming forward when this type of crime happens but, we cant ruin peoples lives over unproven accusations of this type and we are too many years removed from the alleged attack to prove it one way or the other. The man is qualified, there have been no other reports of sexual crimes against him and this looks like another dem dirty trick.
12
Those saying that the new norm seems to be "guilty until proven innocent" with regard to accusations of sexual harassment are missing the point of the #metoo social movement we are experiencing. The norm has been to simply ignore the woman's allegations and dismiss them before even considering the facts. Or worse, attack the woman and publicly shame her. Or ask idiotic questions like "are you a scorned woman Ms. Hill?" For the sake of justice and just plain common decency, we must consider the merits of any sexual allegations brought forward against anyone. This doesn't mean the accused is guilty until proven innocent, it means we don't dismiss allegations of misconduct simply on the basis of the gender of the accuser. Lastly, keep in mind that Dr. Blasey-Ford is just one woman that came forward, and given how difficult this is to do, there are likely other women who were mistreated by Judge Kavanaugh.
26
@John Hayden There are no facts to this case and the woman has already changed parts of her story. I'm not going to pay any attention to allegations that don't have strong and verifiable facts. For the record, telling a friend or therapist about it is not a fact.
8
@Independent. Neither is Kavanaugh’s saying, “I didn’t do it,” a fact.
10
Mike Nifong believed Crystal Gail Mangum and so did most everyone else. But, alas, her story was not true.
8
Anita Hill was subjected to a High Tech Sexual Assault, and the same is likely to be true for Christine, whatever the outcome of her testimony and of the committee vote. Time for old white men to cede their places on the Judiciary Committee, and in the Senate
31
Thank you for this, Maureen. You are in the process of rehabilitating yourself with many of us long-time NYT readers who've decried your snarky columns about the Clintons and Obama. Keep going. Good job.
12
This article’s Maureen Dowd at her best: yep, Anita Hill was to say the least shabbily treated. Yep, Joe Biden fouled up bigly and should say so. Yep, Clarence Thomas was porn-addled, and behaved exactly as Anita Hill said he behaved.
And yep, we’re once again getting the same sort of lynching lite from the good old GOP...in some cases, from the exact same people and orgs. Led by a greedy clown of a President who’s got his very own long, long kite tail of crummy behavior and outright abuse and flagrant lying with regard to women.
Best of all, these are the boyos (and sometimes girls) who’re gleefully going after refugee moms and their kids, poor families, Planned Parenthood, harassment laws, and every other check on their grotesque behavior. And if I hear Chuck Grassley maunder on about how fair he’s being or say that he’ll “grant,” Dr. Ford this or that, one more time, I too may just throw up.
They are not gonna stop, now or ever.
Please vote.
32
I too believe Prof. Blasey and find those old, white Republicans in Congress and elsewhere contemptible in their easy willingness to destroy her credibility and reputation.
It's interesting as well that in her recent columns Ms. Dowd has chosen to lean away from her usual empty observations in praise of these very same men.
Which Dowd to believe and for how long? Has she been influenced by readers' comments which have been very much opposed to those former writings?
5
Ford's claim sounds all too familiar. It sounds just like the Rolling Stone UVA "rape" case and the Duke lacross team "rape" case.
7
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you, Maureen Dowd.
9
As Maureen's piece points out, American women are getting a pretty heavy dose of how they are truly viewed, valued, and believed in our society.
Members of the Senate Judicial Committee, Evangelical Christians, most leaders of the Republican Party, and the President don't seem to be aware of the realities for women in our society, let alone when it comes to sexual harassment, assault, and rape. It is astonishing.
The fact that none of them have the desire to at least get briefed on these realities and the accompanying statistics and "make a good show of it"...is reprehensible. And, a harsh reality we need to recognize.
We can MeToo and Time'sUp all we want...but what we see happening right here and right now - the total disregard, obliviousness, lack of understanding and empathy about and for women - is the stark reality of women's "place" in our society...in 2018.
Where are the mass demonstrations? Where are the pink pussy hats and their organizers? Where are the massive phone and email campaigns that blow-up the internet?
I have been molested by two family members, sexually harassed and gender bullied several times in my life, so I speak from experience...
...if we continue to view ourselves as "victims," if we do not stand up and exert our power with wisdom and maturity - as Senators Feinstein, Harris and Hirono have...what we are seeing now will only be the tip of the iceberg.
24
Good article on the whole, but please try to write one piece in which your personal animosity toward Hillary Clinton does not erupt like some Tourette seizure.
15
It is a travesty that Kavanaugh, a product of sheltered upbringing virtually programmed to produce a SC nominee at the top of the Federalist’s list, is considered a good choice for the court, never mind that he got by with a heinous offense as a privileged intoxicated teenager.
I look at Kavanaugh and see a robot, programmed from the earliest ages to be where he is now. I don’t believe he is imbued with humility or humanity. Give me someone who was in the Peace Corps, or other public service. Judgement is from more than academic achievement.
29
Given that such an accusation—an assault in a private room, at an alcohol-nfused teenage party many years ago—is probably outside the realm of positive proof, I’d like to see the accusation examined as part of the whole picture of how Judge Kavanaugh is responding and has responded to and ruled over women’s concerns throughout his career. Flat denials, unsupported by positive proof, in this truth-mocking culture, are as good as admissions of guilt.
16
It would seem from this column that 'women' are a kind of monolithic class of human beings, as if many millions of women had not voted for Trump in full knowledge that he had sexually assaulted many women, and that he had proclaimed his belief in the effectiveness of grabbing their private parts. In the same way that dozens of women turned up for the Golden Globes 2017 wearing black in solidarity with MeToo - in dresses slashed to the hip or plunging to the navel, proclaiming 'I'm a sex object, ogle at me at your leisure.'
It is dangerous to use 'women' (or 'men') as a collective in relation to a particular political view, when what it's meant is 'women who think like me and share my objectives.' It leads to disappointment when seeing so many women who find Trump and his values admirable. They are not less 'women' than their NYT reading sisters.
7
Here's a radical idea: "Innocent until proven guilty" is a concept that applies to people accused of crimes, at risk of fines, losing the right to vote or own a firearm, of losing freedom, or even their life. And it only applies to people accused in a criminal court of crimes.
"Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply to civil lawsuits where the plaintiff and defendant seek to have "a preponderance of the evidence."
"Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply when you are seeking a job. Employers can't judge you on your age, gender, race, or religion. But they can judge you on your credit history, your criminal record, your "moral integrity" and that indefinable "something"--will you fit into the company philosophy. Who would hire a nanny if she was arrested for theft or drunk driving even if charges were dismissed?
And "Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply when seeking the sweetest job any lawyer or politician can aspire to: A lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States. Nor should it. ANY twist, any question, any doubt should be sufficient to reject such a candidate until those doubts can be 100% dispelled.
We've seen what happens when Justice with a questionable background reaches the Court. In Bush v Gore, Justice Thomas cast a deciding vote DESPITE his wife, working vetting appointment candidates for George W. Bush.
Kavanaugh needs to be rejected and the seat held open till the 116th Congress convenes in January 2018.
25
From everything available so far -- even before Dr. Ford's testimony -- Kavanaugh seems to be speaking something other than truth. And not just on this subject; he has perjured himself on other subjects already (his role in previous judicial appointees; being in possession of stolen emails; etc.) That's why this needs to be the last, not the only, straw, in the case against his being appointed for life to the highest court in the land. What is most concerning to me is still the fact that someone who is such an outlier in his views on Presidential power should ever even have been considered for this position. When asked if a President could pardon himself, Mr. Kavanaugh replied that that was too hypothetical. Don't make me laugh; it could happen next week, and well he knows it! So this tawdry episode -- something which, from all I can see, he brought on himself by his own actions -- is just one more facet in a tissue of lies and dissembling that is unworthy of any Supreme Court Justice. His name should have been withdrawn already.
25
Kavanaugh with a chuckle made a joke that what goes on at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep. Everyone should know that behind a joke is the reality of the joke. If he had not participated in drunken, illegal behavior he would not be proudly joking about it to a room full of high school students. He should be glad Ford did not report the assault or he would not have the grand reputation and life he has now. Today he is not acting like an innocent person or a gentleman who is likely to be the next "SUPREME" Court judge. He should be kind and understanding to Ford and demand she be heard, or he should not put her through this Senate "witch trial" and step down.
17
My wife was molested by her mother's boyfriend and her mother didn't believe her. My wife's story is obviously not the exception. We as citizens have an obligation to express our concerns and beliefs to all members of Congress, both Houses, which I do often. I know that this can take upwards of an hour to write what we want to convey and then copy and paste into messages, but I sleep better when I take the time. I do this because regardless of what State and what District in those States those 535 people represent the 300+ million Americans and they should hear as many voices as possible. In addition, once I decide to write Congress and send off the emails, I make a note to call those who represent me in the House and Senate because I know that phone calls are sometimes the best way to get a Representative or Senate to hear my voice.
America needs to speak up loudly and often or we will lose what is left of our Democracy and Democratic Traditions.
19
Dr. Ford doesn’t need “closure” nor is she delusional enough to want it. Coming forward was the last thing she wanted to do. Her responsibility as a woman first and an American second gave her the courage to speak. No matter what happens from here she will have made an indelible mark on this moment in our human evolution. Those of us who know her pain will not be silenced ever again by the hands of men over our mouths.
23
I wonder why the four people who attended the party and might have been employed as witnesses all denied knowledge of the event. I think Dr. Blasey Ford is telling the truth. Yet in telling the truth, she had to protect her family by moving out of their home, a traumatic experience at best. So knowing of the death threats and the vitriol, how brave must you have to be to come forward as a witness? It seems to me you would have to think long and hard before making such a decision. It is frightening to think that telling the truth can put you in such peril.
17
Thank you for writing this. I am 78 years old and still remember the two times I was both abused/raped as a 20 year old. I never, never considered telling anyone, including my doctor who treated my injures. Despite this abuse I believed women had no right to complain or ever consider reporting to the police. It never crossed my mind. Most men have no comprehension, NONE, of this feeling. I was recently told by a man in his late 30s: “Boys will be boys”. I almost slapped him.
28
American women are a majority of the American electorate and of those who actually vote. Take a lession from the Suffragettes and the civil rights movement. Stop with reasoned arguments and claiming the moral high ground. Rather, target every Republican senator who disrespects or humiliates Dr. Ford. Turn out and vote against every senator who votes to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. Make the casualities of this cultue war personal for US senators still stuck in the past.
Of course, their are women who will support Kavanaugh and who see the destruction of Dr Ford as regretable collateral damage in the 40 year culture war over women’s equality. Persuade them if you can. Only by depriving senators who still support male patriarchy will American change the culture of the American Senate.
11
This about power...Dr. Blakey Ford like now-Professor Hill before her is an obstacle "to be plowed through" in the words of Senate Majority Leader McConnell. Confirming Kavanaugh will energize the Evangelical wing of the party and thus help keep the Senate under Republican power - certainly more so than if Kavanaugh is not affirmed. Brazen court packing with a positive payoff at the polls. We should have let them exceed all those years ago; trust me, they're still fighting a civil war.
10
Ms. Dowd makes an excellent point about how people used Anita Hill for their own ends.
It's happening again.
I have little doubt that both Professor Hill and Dr. Blasey have told the truth. I fear, however, that Dr. Blasey's lawyers are whittling away at her moral authority with various demands for the timing and content of the coming hearing, all in service of the Democrats.
I suspect Dr. Blasey is paralyzed by fear and her lawyers are manipulating her to some extent to help the Democrats. I hope she can slough their maneuverings off her back when she testifies.
5
@Cyclist
Dr. Ford’s lawyers are hardly “whittling away at her moral authority”. They appear to be doing a masterful job of representing their client and her concerns, with a PR strategy that even Mitch and the White House must envy.
Paralyzed by fear? She sailed past that point when she decided to put her name and story out last Sunday in the WaPo article.
If it helps the Democrats, more power to her; but more importantly what she is doing is in service to the Country.
17
@Vicki — The reason I mention Dr. Blasey's (Dr. Ford's) possible fear is that local TV here in the Bay Area interviewed her sister, who said she's a nervous individual.
I'd be nervous myself, even though I've testified before a congressional committee before.
You could be right about Dr. Blasey's lawyers. I go back and forth as I read various accounts of their demands.
I agree with you that, assuming that she's telling the truth about the incident, i.e., she isn't delusional (a possibility for which I've seen no evidence), she's courageously fulfilling an essential civic duty.
1
Ms. Dowd, you have earned my deep respect with this article. It takes tremendous courage to change your mind and speak up and you did with this column. Thank you.
Every single woman in America - and the men who love, respect and support them - must speak up right now to prevent the horrendous attempts to stack OUR U.S. Supreme Court with another serial lying, predatory, ethically bankrupt man who thinks he has a right to decide what the rest of us can and can't do with OUR bodies and lives.
We are in a Constitutional Crisis and straight out condemnation by powerful women and men like you are vital to saving OUR United States of America.
WE THE PEOPLE must not allow a tiny minority of people to destroy OUR country. Not now. Not ever.
Please, Good People, call your Senator, every old white republican man on OUR Senator judicial committee and Traitor Mitch McConnell today and as often as you can and say NO KAVANAUGH. Here is a link to their telephone numbers:
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact%5Finformation/senators%5Fcfm.cfm
22
Ford isn’t a blank slate and “presumption of innocence” isn’t “suspension of disbelief.”
Ford’s dictates to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which turn American jurisprudence on its head, expose her as an anti-democratic anti-constitutionalist. (And hubristic.)
Designed to be rejected, her dictates expose her as dishonest and manipulative.
Dershowitz calls her dictates absurd and un-American.
She must confront the accused.
She must testify under oath FIRST.
She must be cross-examined by the accused's lawyer.
The accused must be given everything probative, including the full Feinstein letter & Ford's scrubbed yearbook.
If Ford wants an investigation, why not go to the MD police? Answer: because she lacks the evidence necessary to investigate… and necessary to disprove, btw.
Ford's fantasy: The FBI is there to fill in her gaping memory holes and concoct a case against Kavanaugh.
Whether her memory problem is because of binge drinking 36 years ago or because she marinated for 36 years in a murky, kafkaesque world where dreams are reality, Ford's fear is, it seems, not being able to keep her circuitous story straight.
11
@Marian
Ridiculous.
Dershowitz is not credible in his analysis.
The proper thing to do is for the FBI to do an impartial investigation. We know they entirely botched the Anita Hill investigation, and so the onus would be on them to do a better job this time.
Failing that, the stage is set by Republicans who view running over Ms. Ford as a mere formality at this point. Given that this is NOT a trial, Kavanaugh has no rights whatsoever to either confront this person, or to rebut her testimony. Allowing him to go last would do nothing more than to give GOP senators a shameless escape route out of this whole mess and reward them for bad behavior.
As to binge drinking, seems clear to me Kavanaugh has a demonstrable history of that and has already made the illogical (and suspiciously culpatory) statement that he wasn't at a party that had not yet been defined in time and place. That alone should disqualify the man: faulty intellect.
14
I'm no fan of the GOP or Clarence Thomas, their puppet on the USSC. However, I do think it is a bit unfair to drag his name and even perhaps his sordid past back into this current squalor decades after the fact, and after long and (as far as I know) honorable service on the high court.
4
I suggest looking up his assorted conflicts of interest and unbroken record of attacking anything resembling women’s rights, and rethinking this.
19
@Robert So I guess it is not possible to separate one's partisan politics from a basic concept of fairness. The question is, is it possible to rehabilitate one's reputation over time or is it not? I don't think I suggested in any way that I approved of Thomas' politics.
I hate Trump; and I hate the whole aura of males dominance that he embodies; and I hate the river of lies that flows forth from him and his administration. And yes, women need to stand up and prevail against this male maelstrom of mendacity . Woman power!
8
Sick to Your Stomach of #MeToo? YES!
5
Disappointing perspective from one more thoughtful. Perhaps it is easier to grab the megaphone and pitchfork while redefining veracity. With Ms. Dowd holding the banner proudly, women always tell the truth and men always lie. Interesting how quickly reason is jettisoned for the comfort of emotion and its approach to judgement and decision making.
Dr. Blasey has no pedestal to stand on regarding credibility unless gifted one by those who want vengeance for an election defeat not justice for assault.
5
We read of women and girls in other countries who, after having been sexually assaulted, are then disowned by their families, shunned by their communities, even stoned. And we are shocked. Why? Are we so advanced?
33
I'll say one thing for you Maureen, you are one of the few people who are consistent in your beliefs. You are sticking up for women who are accusing men of sexual assault, whether the accused man is named Kavanaugh or Clinton. I see an awful lot of women who vehemently defended Bill Clinton, and his hench-woman Hillary, now suddenly believing that every woman accuser should automatically be believed. My question is: Why the change of heart? Does guilt or innocence totally depend on whether a person has a 'D' or 'R' next to their name?
7
She may be pretty consistent, but she’s not nearly as consistent as the right-wingers who try to reduce a lawyer, activist, wife, mom, First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, writer, and democratic nominee for President to a “hench-woman.”
11
@Dave May I add a few more less known, but no less affected. Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans, three white members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team.
4
This whole mess could be ended today, and Dr. Ford not have to be subject to what is surely going to be a horrific experience if only two other women would stand up and say NO: Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.
The game would be over....
Why the silence out of Maine and Alaska? Sen. Leahy showed in detail that Kavanaugh lied repeatedly in other confirmation hearings, and as others have pointed out, the first statement out of his mouth when his nomination was announced was also a lie.
What does it take????
40
@LesW
Actually WaPo gave Sen Leahy two Pinocchios for at least of those accusations. If it matters?
Exactly what are we all supposed to be sick to our stomach about with regards to Kavanaugh? That the Dems have leveled charges of sexual assault and attacked his character based solely on unverified, and now by all witness accounts, untrue allegations simply because he is a conservative white male?
Dr. Ford’s last remaining witness has now issued a statement denying being at the party in question.
“On Saturday night, Leland Ingham Keyser, a classmate of Ford's at the all-girls school Holton-Arms and her (Ford’s) final named witness, denied any recollection of attending a party with Brett Kavanaugh”.
"Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford," lawyer Howard J. Walsh said in a statement sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
So, I have to assume we’re supposed to be sick to our stomachs over Feinstein, the other Dems on the Judiciary Committee, and the NYT for leveling sexual misconduct accusations against a man, who by all accounts (before Ford’s 37 year old accusation) is a person of impeccable character. Given the statements provided by the women who have worked for, and with him, over these many years he has never displayed anything but the highest degree of respect for females. Not another single allegation of sexual misconduct.
You’re right. I am starting to feel a bit nauseous after reading yet another liberal hit piece in the NYT.
6
I am getting a bit nauseous reading comments blaming the victim. In general, men are quite aware of this behavior which is rarely reported to law enforcement.For this reason, women try to forget the attack and move on, Carefully, with their lives.
15
That “the highest degree of respect for females,” really says it all.
This just in: animals are males and females.
People are women and men. And other things too, but not to be reduced to animals.
5
CHARACTER, all we are really looking for is character. In our representatives, in our judges, in law enforcement, in our religious groups, even in our newspaper columnists. Anywhere. Everywhere. Just plain, simple, CHARACTER. Honesty, decency, respect. CHARACTER.
Where you don't see CHARACTER, VOTE it OUT.
19
Yep; totally appalling.
1
No one better, Dowd is the best.
5
In 2015, a privileged and arrogant adult frat boy by the name of Brett Kavanaugh was joking (nudge-nudge, wink wink) as guest speaker to future boys-to-men of and said, “…Fortunately, we had a good saying that we've held firm to, to this day, as the dean was reminding me before the talk, which is, 'What happens at Georgetown Prep, stays at Georgetown Prep. Tha's been a good thing for all of us, I think."
Not funny, Brett. Not from where I sit. Because when I was 17, somebody pinned me down and put his hand over my mouth too. So I don’t get it. And I don’t get why you have to be in the Supreme Court for the October docket. I don’t get how a womanizing lunatic currently under investigation gets to put your nomination through and Mitch McConnell would not even hear Merrick Garland. I just don’t get it.
But I do get that democracy is not a spectator sport. That’s why I hope to God everyone is getting out the vote. And will continue to do so. Because you don’t get to stay there if you do end up there. You lied while being questioned, evidence being with-held to your advantage has been going on all along, and you don’t even care to have witnesses or an investigation at this inquest. So both you AND Trump deserve impeachment.
And because Trump’s court jesters think I should just shut up and sit down, guess where they’re going to end up if they don’t announce their retirement and get out.
40
Not sure the Me Too movement is going to have a happy ending. All that seems to be transpiring is, as us and them circumstance. My guess is it will go un announced going forward, but separating males and females will become common place. Point being for men, why ask for trouble. Just avoid females as best you can, especially in the workplace, it is a minefield .
5
My name is Luka
I lived on the second floor
Please ask me what happened those years ago
I think it’s time that you should know.
A “banner of manhood” a man bragged about – one strong enough to kill
To make a woman bend and then her voice break to his will.
As “decorum” is the daily rant of men who put to want to test
How much they can be openly abusive and use conquest
To put their hand over her mouth again, I remember when
I lived up there and then was put to rest.
I am the ghost of Luca
I haunt women of today
Because these men don’t see or hear or care
About me anyway.
But the women who live upstairs to this day
I’ve watched them come and go.
And throughout the years they have felt the same way
They hear and indeed they know.
Their banner shows a strength so strong
That “manhood” is redefined too.
This “hearing” of geriatric frat boys closes shop
But they’ll hear THEM, and with them, me too.
We will not be quiet anymore.
Our banner, OUR voice, will prevail.
While Trump et al thump their sunken chests and roar
As they’re run out on a rail.
We know you’re cowards, Trump-petters, we know you’re liars too.
From every floor, we rise – and tell, our voices getting through.
They’re loud and clear. but you can’t hear.
And this is what you do, upstairs downstairs that's your thing.
We’ll clean the house, and Senate too.
And we'll turn winter into spring.
Sweep out the trash, including you.
14
Why is the fact that emails revealed during his confirmation hearing indicate that he was not truthful in his answers being ignored by the Committee?
Looking at Kavanaugh's blotchy red face one may well ask:
Is he just ruddy and high colored?
or
Does he have acne rosacea?
or
Is he still a heavy drinker?
Some input for dermatologists please.
12
Just finished reading the many comments explaining - and defending - male sexual privilege.
PS - there is no defense.
25
Things are never going to change when people say, well what about so and so. Things that happened in the 60s or even 90s should not be an excuse for today.
In this case it is plain and simple. The man wants to be a judge on the highest court in the land, not a CEO of a private company, and when 17 he put his hand over a 15 year old girls mouth to stop her from screaming, while he laid on top of her.
Our country must learn from our mistakes and women now know we are not alone in our experiences.
Democracies don’t run on treadmills.
14
He went on to join a college frat that was known as misogynistic. The members during his years made their own flag: it was bras and panties pieces together into a flag.
Kavanaugh's high school friend that Dr. Ford says came into the room when she was attacked later wrote a book. It detailed the aithor's alcoholism and the dedication the prep school classmates had to going through 100 kegs and lots of womanizing in a single year.
Kavanaugh in recent years had six figure debts, with much of that being because of his expenditures for sports tickets.
Excesses. Not sensible behaviors.
41
This past Thursday, the front page of the "Yale Daily News" paints a very disturbing picture of what kind of a young man Kavanaugh was at Yale. The paper includes an article about Kavanaugh’s days at the university, during which he was part of an all-boys Yale secret society called “Truth and Courage” which was referred to as “Tit and Clit.” The creepily nicknamed organization eventually disappeared in the 2010’s.
This information is critical for the individuals who must make a decision about Kavanaugh's suitability for the position of Justice of the Supreme Court. It is sickening to watch the Republican old men of Congress, misogynists all, denigrate Prof. Ford before she's even had a chance to testify.
Some of them actually have the gall to announce that they've already made up their minds, and have announced that Kavanaugh will be confirmed. Evidently, the white-haired members of the Judiciary Committee who were present at the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearing haven't learned a thing.
42
@Elizabeth Bennett "Some of them actually have the gall to announce that they've already made up their minds,..."
And the Democrats have all said they will wait until all of the facts are presented before they make a decision?
3
Ms. Dowd,
Nice to see you are once again a Democrat. Will you roll back to Republican before the next Presidential election? We remember how you hated Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama, and won’t forgive you and forget it.
13
She called ‘em like she saw ‘em, whether you or me liked it, and this just in: she’s not the one who needs, “forgive and forget,” here.
My guess is that the Republicans will treat Dr. Blasey Ford with respect when she testifies and not be confrontational with her, but ignore what she has to say and vote to confirm Kavanaugh. That's their best option to get what they want and minimize infuriating too many more women.
11
“Oh, we come on the ship they call the Mayflower,
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age’s most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune”
— Paul Simon, American Tune
As introduction to this song, Mr. Simon (on current tour) merely says: “These are strange times — don’t give up hope.”
He need not say more.
11
If the American Electorate does not come out in droves and remove every single Republican who holds office then they are
now co-conspirators in the downfall of this already great nation.
Beginning this November and every November to follow until the Republicans are stripped of their majority in both Houses and Trump is removed from office then this nation will be a constant state of turmoil. We are headed toward treacherous times, America. We must act now.
DD
Manhattan
21
Blasey, like Hill, has offered to accept an avalanche of very real risk with the hope of just one very unsatisfying reward - that her information will be considered.
I remember thinking that the spectacle (not the subject) of Hill’s hearing reinforced and advanced a general apparatus of misogyny and racism. Even with the sound off, the image itself — of a woman with brown skin being interrogated (in front of her family) by a panel of men with mostly white skin — communicated a lot about the structure of power in the United States.
16
A lot of us women are finding that we feel like crying for no apparent reason.
But the reason is there.
Well said, Maureen.
15
Maureen, I think most folks understand the concept of repression of bad memories or even the idea about keeping quiet about bad stuff that happens to avoid “rocking the boat” of one’s life.
What I don’t understand and can’t accept is the idea that it is acceptable to attempt anonymous (and this person did try to remain anonymous) reporting of bad behavior more than a generation after the fact with the purpose of hurting the target, and with the expectation that no doubts should be raised about the report. Even worse those who raise doubts are labeled sexist.
Prompt reporting of crime is now and should always be a consideration in weighing the credibility of an accuser. Delayed reporting can in some cases be overcome with powerful evidence, but it is a fair and reasonable factor in believability.
7
@Ben. You say "Prompt reporting of crime is now and should always be a consideration in weighing the credibility of an accuser."
Was that your reaction in the Catholic Church scandals when men, decades after the abuse spoke up. Even though they never reported the crime? Did that negate their stories?
14
Few to none of young women assaulted in this way reported it to the police. It appears to me that you-are blaming the victim for the current situation in an indirect way.
6
@CityMouse you inadvertently confirm my point. The Priest-abusers were overwhelmed by multiple victims. The delay was overcome by this powerful evidence. Here, not a single additional victim has come forward against this accused molester . Have you heard of any molesters who have tried it only once?
It is worth remembering that Anita Hill had not wanted to testify, or even speak publicly. She had in confidence answered questions the FBI had put to her and others. The Republicans on the committee, not the Democrats, leaked her name. And they subpoenaed her against her will. And they tormented her in most caddish fashion. Dowd points out that rather than having been expelled, two of these monsters are still on the committee.
I add that most of the other Republicans who have since joined the committee were not innocent. They were egging the monsters on.
20
Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, has said she was sexually harassed during her service in the U.S. Navy. Ernst has been vocal speaking out against sexual harassment and sexual assault.
We have not heard from Senator Ernst about the SCOTUS nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
Email or call Senator Joni Ernst at her senate office and ask her to oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
29
I trust that you know how to do good investigative reporting, Ms. Dowd. With preventative care I still cannot believe the situation my then children were in and the outcome.
1
Yes it is sickening. There is a personal story and the advise and consent story. I assume Dr. Ford is motived by 1. an attempt at "closure" for a traumatic event early in her life AND 2. wanting to ensure Judge Kavanaugh isn't seated on the court. I don't doubt one is related to two and I suspect her credibility in conveying the first will go a long way toward achieving goal number two. As a parent of high school/college kids the behavior that takes place in parties is a constant discussion with my daughter and boys. I wonder how many of the posters here and Fox care truly about 1. IMO the answer to that is truly sickening. IMO the "lessons" that can come out of this is better parenting, better examples, better vigilance. Set aside personal agendas and remember we're going to witness a 53 and a 51 year old recalling an alcohol filled party they were or (or per Judge Kavanaugh) weren't at 36 years ago. That's a lesson for our 15 and 17 year olds. Parents we need to focus on the truly important part of this drama- raising kids who aren't damaged by actions as unsupervised adolescents.
9
The lesson young people and women everywhere will take away from this disgusting Kavanaugh confirmation charade - no matter what happens with Dr. Ford’s testimony - is that all that matters nowadays is partisan control.
American ideals, already on shaky ground, mean nothing these days. The words emblazoned in the Preamble to the Constitution, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union...” have become meaningless in the GOP’s desperate quest to retain power. Their mantra is, “We will do whatever is necessary, stoop to whatever depths are required, to maintain political advantage, no matter that a majority of our fellow countrymen find our policies abhorrent.”
Our founding fathers must be puking in their graves.
30
Donald is winning. His efforts to divide the nation along any number of fault lines are working.
Are we on the path toward greatness?
The Republicans knew Brett Kavanaugh was a reactionary ideologue when they confirmed him the last time.
And, well before Ms. Ford's letter, Mitch McConnell knew it would be hard to confirm the judge if all his past were closely examined -- from spying on the Senate to torture and war crimes to his salacious examination of Bill Clinton to his longtime association with Alex Kozinski.
And so it is. Kavanaugh was never qualified. He is a ringer for Donald Trump.
21
@Occupy Government
Yes. Brett = Donald.
Brett calls contraception "abortion inducing drugs."
Donald thinks women who have had abortions should be "punished."
9
Why do white men assume that an accusation against one of them is an accusation and judgment against all of them, especially when the consequences of it being true are most damaging to power? Are their collective egos really so fragile that they are unable to take theses cases one at a time on their merits for fear of losing the long held advantage?
15
I do so believe if it weren’t for the abhorrent behavior of Mitch McConnell who is blatant in his pac back bad behavior, this would not be happening. Not like this anyway. So much ill will behind all of this...Merrick Garland beefing refused even a hearing and the way this hearing was pushed through!.
He is without a doubt the “rotten apple”.
But your column is very perceptive and I thank you.
11
So, let's just say the allegation is true. 36 years ago a drunk teenager tried to take some aggressive sexual liberties with a (perhaps also drunk) classmate. How many women can honestly say they never found themselves in the same situation at some point in their lives? Yet we are supposed to destroy an (otherwise) outstanding jurist who is set to join the Supreme Court? Why were the (multiple) women who accused Bill Clinton of much worse not enough to drive him from office. Make no mistake, this is about blocking a conservative appointment, not about a teenage transgression from 36 years ago that may or may not have actually happened.
10
@Southern Man
I’ve found myself there when young. And the dudes I told to back off backed off. No one forced me to do anything despite them being young, drunk, and horny. I even got apologies. I like and respect men and I assume most guys would behave like the guys I met. No one has a problem with young men trying to get lucky... and they often do if the girl likes him and she wants it. But if she doesn’t want it most guys stop even when drunk. If Kavanaugh behaved as Dr Blasey Ford says he did, then that is something different entirely. And it definitely does say something about his character.
14
We are not doomed if we elect woke women to all public offices.
7
All societies have always had a portion that was labeled in Roman times as the "Mob". They are emotional, unruly and resentful of authority of most kinds. They make up about a third of our society and 90 percent of registered Republican voters.
Trump governs in a way that satisfies the Mob so that he can control the Republican Party and with that our Government.
Dr. Ford is doing an enormous public service regardless of how these hearings proceed. Our national media, indeed the global media, will highlight that the President has appointed a person to the Supreme Court that cannot project the image of being fair and of good character, whether he is or not. Thus, for decades any decisions in which he participates will be tainted.
The Senate Republicans will demonstrate to voters that they are willing to put Party and ideology over country. These 11 Old White Republican Men will do more to discredit their Party and their candidates in 2018 and 2020 than the Democrats could ever dream of doing.
Joe Biden's chances for another Presidential run will end next Thursday as his cowardice and bad judgment for blocking the supporting witnesses of Anita Hill to testimony are brought front and center again.
Finally, our sexual predator President can be counted on to attack Dr. Ford and her family as he did last Friday. What more motivation do women and men of integrity have to vote and get their friends and families to do the same in the 2018 elections?
12
I am just so tired of the self serving condescenging Republican senate hierarchy complaining that the Dems are trying to slow down an important process. Really?? Are your memories that short to forget the unamerican and boorish behavior you exhibited a short while ago. But wait, Republicans are the party of the special people, not your average American.
22
Thank You to Maureen Dowd. The underhanded way the Republican Senators are trying to position Kavanaugh onto the life time SCJ seat with out as much as disclosing Kavanaughs records. And now the same Senators are working to diminish Ms Blasey Fords account of Kavanaughs sexual assault on her body when she was a young girl of 15. And, again, the same Republican Senators dismissing calls for an FBI investigation. I would be a fool not to wonder why? These Senators are behaving as if they are not public servants accountable to all people. They conduct their business like a Private Corporation working for the smallest most elite percentage of the pubic. The Republican Senators live a life of entitlement and privilege that now includes giving a pass to men accused of molesting little girls starting at a young age. They are not and should not be entitled to jobs on a Supreme Court made for far better men. The SCJustices are supposed to be vigorously ethical people. We can do so much better then Kavanaugh and a great deal better then the current Republican Senate. Our country was made to be far better then this.
10
What a superb description of this latest ugly, ineptly handled macho fiasco by our august, smug GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee! They continue to act like a bunch of clueless, arrogant old frat boys--and I mean "old" frat boys.
Although written in the past tense, what Maureen said about the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearing continues to hold true in 2018:
"No one was trying to figure out the truth or do what was best for the court and the country. Republicans only cared about ramming through a right-wing justice. Even though they were the majority, Democrats were cowed..."
The time is long overdue to change the old frat-boy characters and unnecessary ugly plot of our deteriorating national story in the Senate, White House, and beyond. Term limits? Elect more women? End Citizens United and our destructive campaign finance laws? Get rid of the antiquated, dysfunctional Electoral College? Move to Canada?
10
Well, right now the real question is whether evidence of his effort to rape, together with who knows what else, like more lying, is the real reason the Republican's took the unprecedented and completely unfair move to refuse to release masses of information about his past. Until proven otherwise, I'll believe that, and everyone else should too. It's only reasonable. They clearly had something to hide, right?
5
I'm more worried about Kavanaugh's earlier brainwashing by what should logically be considered a dangerous, unethical cult, but for its huge numbers. This organization is against birth control and women's rights and severely damages children with guilt and fear.
15
@Frank Walker
Agree. Brett's hatred of contraception ("abortion inducing drugs") is just part of his hatred of women.
9
That “progressive” Marxianity as a false religion has become readily apparent from the Kavanaugh charade; evidence to the contrary both circumstantial and actual does not matter to the faithful who accept Ford’s accusation on faith alone. Look to the exchanges in comments sections and the responses by “progressives” are no different than those of Christian fundamentalists insisting the flood occurred. It is very dangerous territory when words no longer suffice and even simple concessions to the truth cannot be extracted from the “faithful”.
That Ford’s attorneys are insisting Kavanaugh not only testify first but be sequestered in a separate room when Ford testifies is antithetical to Constitutional guarantees the accused has a right to confront the accuser who is required to state the accusation before trial. I have yet to hear of a Democrat condemning such flagrant disregard for basic Constitutional guarantees but instead laud what were standard procedure during the Inquisition i.e. defend yourself without knowing the specific charges and then be subjected to trial by ordeal.
Incremental Marxism has met the wall of resistance Gramsci warned of and time will tell if the lumpen faithful are called into the streets by the bishops and cardinals of the false religion in a “War of Maneuver”.
3
@Adler Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination is based on the GOP's certainty that he will provide the crucial fifth ascent in a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. That a judge whose decisions could empower the government to dictate what women can do their bodies might have committed an assault that could, if successful, have impregnated a girl is entirely relevant to his fitness to sit on the Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh faces no criminal charges. Senate testimony is not a criminal trial. Dr. Blasey Ford is a character witness in a confirmation hearing that the GOP is trying to ramrod through at light speed. Now they've all sulking and grumbling about delays in a process that will put someone on the Supreme Court for 25 to 30 years minimum.
Let Dr. Ford have her say, and allow her to do so without treating HER like a criminal, as the GOP did to Anita Hill. It's the least the GOP--which placed a reliable conservative who was also a known workplace harasser--on SCOTUS in 1991--can do.
3
What makes me sick to my stomach are the many posters, without hearing a word of testimony from Ms. Ford, that have already concluded that Brett Kavanaugh is guilty, simply for being a powerful white male.
7
@1truenorth
Does it make you sick to your stomach that Brett has been coached by Bill Shine? (Another "powerful white male" who has helped other abusers prepare for testimony.)
Does it make you sick to your stomach that Mark Judge, who was in the room, is not being called to testify under oath?
9
Would have been nice if you had been able to hold this perspective during 2016.
6
The Capitol, the Supreme Court, they are buildings that symbolize the justice that we strive for. But, they are populated by ordinary people. A Senator beating another with a cane that broke during the beating - he was gifted with dozens of replacement canes. A Senator who killed a young woman driving his car off a bridge - he had a long, influential career in the Senate. A Senator who plagiarized and shabbily treated Anita Hill - he became Vice President. Kinky sex, lying, theft, blackmail, drugs and excessive alcohol are as present throughout all government as in society at large. The illusions of teenage years, the misplaced awe of symbols and government officials, are just that - illusions of the inexperienced. Reality is different - it is ugly, unseemly, offensive, disheartening. #MeToo is powerful and essential, finally a revolt among women who have been taken advantage of and dominated for tens of thousands of years. It is an effort to bring justice where there hasn't been much. Is there a victim in the Blasey-Kavanaugh scenario? Yes, it is the people of Montgomery County, of the State of Maryland, of the US, all women, because Blasey didn't immediately report a crime. A person wasn't held responsible for sexual assault. Until every sexual assault is immediately called out, the crimes continue. Waiting 30 or 36 years harms all women. Is it selfish not immediately to report? It is ordinary. And it is harmful to hall of us.
4
I would like to see Grassley investigated for what he knew about the sexual asssult committed by his staffer handling Kavanaugh’s confirmation..
There needs to be sunlight on the character and actions of the old white GOP males who hold themselves to a different standard of truth, morality, disclosure, and accountability than the rest of America.
16
@Patrician
Agree. Why did Trump assign Bill Shine to coach Brett on how to respond to his victim's testimony?
7
@Pecan
Excellent point.
2
Dr. Blasey Ford will speak for all women and girls who have survived the predation of privileged and entitled men when she tells her story on Thursday.
“The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is.” — Susan Sontag
9
great Mo. lets hope if/when she gets a "legitimate" hearing with pontius pilate grassley and his minions she will say something along the lines of;
" if you seek to deny the women of America due process, or any other fundamental right, for nothing more than your own partisan political expediency senator, you do so at your own peril".
9
Absolutely true. We remember, too. So we also remember that you trashed Obama and Hillary. How are they looking to you now?
12
very good, but could we please her what does Sarah Jeong have to say about all this.
1
Women may have to wait another 100 years for equality when faced against evil misogynist geniuses the likes of Donald J. Trump. Kavanaugh will rule on cases perhaps for the next 40 years.
10
8/17/98 Democrat President Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to testify before a grand jury investigating his conduct. After the questioning at the White House is finished, Clinton goes on national TV to admit he had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
3
For once, I agree with your column Ms. Dowd - no gratuitous Obama or Clinton bashing (but if only you had been more even with Ms. Clinton). But as for the men who are raging about Dr. Ford's accusations. you are part of the problem. First, the language of "groping" minimalizes what happened. Read carefully - Dr. Ford describes having her clothes torn off and a hand placed so hard on her mouth that she thought she was going to die. Even at that moment, Kavanaugh knew he was in the wrong because he was silencing her. Second, studies everywhere talk about the suppression of memory, the shame that silences. Think the Catholic Church. As for men fearing for their safety. Give it a rest. You are not entitled to gropes and unforced advances. It's not your right. Your fear? Give it a rest. Try walking down a semi-lit street, parking lot or entering an elevator with your heart racing because you are afraid - simply because you are a woman. Don't dismiss me as hysterical and angry. Almost every woman you know has had a similar experience and recognizes the fear and shame. Enough Time's up.
15
@Mita Choudhury What you must understand is that Dowd is consistently anti-Republican. There's no hypocrisy in criticizing the Clintons and Obama - they're stealth Rockefeller Republicans.
3
The left side of the aisle is difficulty to understand. They condemn anyone who judges legal sexual behavior and have no problem with everyone being out and honest about who they are. They even are working to pull the rhetorical stunt of having us all refer to prostitutes and pornographic movie actors as sex workers. But if you watch those movies and talk about them and joke the way you would the day after seeing Hangover or Bridesmaids, then there is something deeply wrong with you. I am also sick to my stomach, and it has been aching a while now. Why? Democrats followed Hill v.Thomas up by electing Clinton, a known abuser and a man under accusation of rape. HRC apparently didn't get the believe the accuser memo, did she? So, Democrats ran her for president. Seeing partisan politics paraded as principles is nauseating.
4
So Brett Kavanaugh, the lawyer who wrote a list of extremely salacious questions to elicit every last detail of Clinton's sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky in clinical detail, now doesn't want to answer any questions himself about HIS personal behavior. AND he rounded up a posse of male friends to discredit his accuser and to deflect her allegations toward someone else. (I frankly hope Ed Whelan is sanctioned in some way for his conduct).
It's clear that Republicans see Christine Blasey Ford only as an obstacle in the path of Kavanaugh's confirmed to be bulldozed and buried as quickly as possible. Which explains a lot about the way they see women in general: Not as people, but as walking uteruses incapable of governing themselves and thus desperately in need of federal law requiring them to provide safe harbor to every sperm, including those of a rapist.
17
Thank you, Maureen! This is the best column you've written for a long time!
2
I lived through the Thomas/Hill hearings. My stomach also turns whenever I hear the name Clarence Thomas. It also turns when I hear the word Republican, for the way Clarence Thomas was ramrodded through the approval process.
They got Thomas and you couldn't get me to vote Republican if he was running against the Devil himself.
14
So you think that stuff smeared all over the Capitol is mud?
Yeah, it looks like mud, but the smell of it is just awful.
10
Miss the good old days when you could continuously mock “Barry” Obama? Maureen you have no credibility to complain.
9
Yes, Maureen, you are partly responsible for the climate today with your demeaning, snarky columns over the years about Hillary Clinton, a person extremely qualified to be president.
I notice that you are now only writing one column a week as opposed to when Hillary was in public life you were writing two.
You have less snark to write now that Hillary is out of public life.
12
@Alan Snipes
If you are serious about women being believed about when they come forward about being victims of sex abuse, then you surely want to make HRC accountable for her cold-blooded destruction of credible women who accused her husband. That disqualified her, right? I sure remembered that when I voted for Sanders. Of course, I had no idea at the time that the DNC had already rigged the primary in her favor. By the way, I include as part of my definition of extremely qualified being able to handle basic technology and never being described by the Director of the FBI as extremely careless.
4
"only to find ourselves dragged back to the same place."
We're going after rhino with bird-shot here. The Sisyphus rock is up against an insurmountable mountain. What is that hurdle? Male aggression--that indispensable component of the Pentagon. We select a college by its ability to project male violence--football. The Pentagon, next the White House, is its greatest shrine. Can we begin to even tinker with it? With smirking Putin on the prowl? War and the threat of war are the great "draggers back" here. What's on trail here is male swagger--that got out of hand. The Pentagon is America's great swagger stick. Senators know that to tinker with swagger is to tinker with the Pentagon. Hence, the nervousness on both sides. Push too hard here and Putin's smirk will only get wider.
I feel terrible for these male Senators. How on earth with #Metoo hanging over their heads are they supposed to honestly question this Jezebel?
How can they say that it is her fault for speaking up and that it was entirely ok for a man to try to force a woman to have sex. Everyone knows booze makes you horny and she was there after all. Now, how to voice their true feelings? They don’t care. A male’s career has and always will be more important than an attempted assault. She got away after all. In their eyes, she already “won”. The deer eluding the hunter. The creature minding their own business and the coward, gun in hand (in his case friend) lying in wait.
10
Gosh, I wonder if MoDo is going to retract all of those endearing columns she has written about Hillary Clinton over the years.
13
If you want to have a moral compass, you need to have it all the time.
You can't brush aside Kopechne and Lewinsky but then be outraged at Hill and Ford.
When you do your cries for justice fade away into the din of partisan politics.
4
@JD (Mrs. Gary here) As far as I know, neither Kopechne nor Lewinsky were subjected to violence nor were they underage. Consenting adults involved. Your what-about-ism fails.
7
Insnared in the words, caught up in the outrage, time and again. Instead of lament, stand and shake clear our minds, realize the course of action that so clearly is well with in our grasp, right before our faces. To vote for those who unite to seize the moment and to act as those who wrote our future in our Constitution did. Let us take this bull by the horns, not to dither but to wisely forge our futures!
Yes but 54% of Maureen Dowd's fellow white women voted for Donald Trump while 98% of black women voted for Hillary Clinton.
Both the #MeToo and the #Black LIves Matter movements are the original creations of black women Tarana Burke, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opel Tometi. Black female lives from Sallie Hemmings to Anita Hill did not and still do not matter as much as any white female's lives.
Trump's wives and daughters and staff and Cabinet stand with him and Kavanaugh. They are not sick to their stomach. Trump and Kavanaugh have the support of Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and the rest of the Fox News princess queen cackling cabal.
12
MD like the rest of us needs to own this; and that means in a huge way, Trump. What is Trump's main problem? He believes perception is reality, meaning you must control all sources of information, to get your perceptions adopted. This is called branding, and entered politics in a big way, most recently with Rovian fund raising to make the GOP a big tent. But when conservatives totally surrendered to this, the idea that character and truth matter went out the door, a door in which Trump entered. Please stop saying that Trump's election makes him a legitimate president; legal yes, but not even close to legit. What is the academic's left's biggest problem? Post Kant epistemology says that truth is what people in power say it is, so we must get people in who say our perceptions are truth. This makes the academic left just like Trump; which means they are fighting and in conflict not because they are different, but because they are the same. Thank God for We the People, that although they also made this mistake, they are the ones who will save us, if they let go of this mistake. Nobody in their pursuit of daily bread believes perception is reality. Either you eat or you do not. America retreated into their individual lair, to actualize their personal agenda, just like Trump. What America forgot and what Trump is not likely to get, you cannot have your own, until you help others have theirs. Stop watching tv for at least one hour a week, and start getting politically involved.
3
Three words put Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court--high tech lynching. Clarence Thomas played misunderstood victim to perfection during his confirmation hearing and that's why he's still on the Supreme Court. Even in the #MeToo era the "all men stick together" defense is hard to defeat. Women are still being blamed for men's sleazy behavior and lack of control. Well, she asked for it, right??? So what if they were just a couple of dumb high school kids who didn't know any better?? She asked for it.
12
Maureen, I liked you in 1984/5 when you came to visit and you opened six preps on drugs. Terrific piece. They cooperated, all six. Nothing changed. It’s societal. Today, I love you for your OpEd. You and Mike Bloomberg say it today. Bless you!! Bless Mike. Remember, I Like Ike? Well, I Like Mike! I hired Mike on June 20th, 1966.... and Fareed turned on the lights at 10 o’clock today on CNN. Mike was fabulous. Bless The New York Times. Again and again.
1
Women: dukes up, believe one another, make this moment, this time count, don't let prejudice and misogyny win! If not now, when??? As the equinox gathers its darkness today of this sordid year, and as it gathers its last possible light...I mourn for us all and cry and pray and still...if there is a shred of decency left in the US Congress...I hope that Dr. Blasey Ford will be believed and that Judge Kavanaugh will slink back to the same shadows of immorality inhabited by the current inhabitant of the White House. Let there be light, in the White House, in the Supreme Court, and in America...NOW.
9
Don't I recall that Ms. Dowd relentlessly attacked Hillary Clinton as a candidate? We reap what we sow, Ms. Dowd. We could have had a qualified woman in office and avoided this mess.
14
I'm sick to my stomach with #metoo! I'll vote for Kavanaugh because he has led an honorable and unblemished life, until the democrats threw Ford at the gate..with a woman who has a severe memory lapse and who's case would neer stand up in a court of law. Where were the screaming protestors (who act more like barbarians) when four women (Juanita Broderick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Wiley and Leslie Millwee) accused Bill Clinton of gross sexual misconduct and rape? Shouldn't he now join the ranks of Harvey Weinstein and other sexual predators to plead his case in court? But instead, the democrats gave him his "get out of jail free" card. This political bias has got to end....beginning with throwing out the Ford allegations that can in no way be substantiated. Diane Fienstein should resign for sitting on this loaded gun for 3 months, instead of immediately calling for an investigation. A travesty to our justice system, a derelict of duty to the people she serves.
6
Kavanaugh has not led an unblemished life. He has speeches full of references to his prep school days that purposefully hint at behavior that would appall anyone who knows about it. We don’t know his record because the GOP has sat on tens of thousands of pages of records. This guy has a lot to hide and the GOP hopes to God we don’t find out about it.
21
It is a lifetime appointment. He has shown himself to be less than straight forward.
7
@Pvbeachbum
" Diane Feinstein should resign for sitting on this loaded gun for 3 months,"
Shooting the messenger does not change the facts. Wake up and vote to save the nation from the Trump crime family and his swamp creature abettors.
6
Mo,
As Grassley from Iowa and McConnell from Kentucky won't admit, that ain't mud.
Trump, of course, is attracted by the aroma.
14
Where was Dowd's righteous outrage when these same forces attacked Hillary? Answer: right alongside them.
12
Thanks. I am sick also of average males responding that women who insist that the allegations be takens seriously is an outrageous attack on all men. Really it isn't. It's an attack on a system which - as its first reposne to woem and girls - and men too -who report past sexual intimidation, inappropriate comments and touches and assaults all the way to rape - -a system which goes for the reporter's jugular.
I don't believe 100% of such allegations without evidence. I absolutely believe in taking every allegation and reporter seriously and with respect. I also know that most reports are valid, based on real events. My bias is based on personal experience, testimony and work investigating such abuse. When they are off base, there are clues.
How can anyone see the woman you aptly describe as a bookish professor, loved by family and friends, respected in her work, as some sort of crazy who seeks media coverage? She gets nothing but fear, grief and pain for stepping up.
You want to see people who love media coverage? Observe the behavior of our President. Watch Senators as they grandstand at hearings. They are so used to exploiting power that they assume everyone else is corrupt. Trump uses lawsuits to extract defeats from those without the financial wherewithal to fight back: he's leveraging his office to apply the most legal firepower he's ever been able to level at "enemies" (even in the DOJ)
Shameless old men; bent on shaming another woman.
Sick to my stomach @ MeToo
15
A guy named Weinstein weaponized the metoo movement for due cause. Suddenly it has morphed into a tactic to destroy conservative white men, Keith Ellison need not to apply.
SJW 1 America 0. They won, and Lady Liberty weeps for her due process.
Oh, please! Conservative white men are destroying themselves. They don't need any help. From Donald Trump on down through Blake Farenhold, Roy Moore, Rob Porter - too many to list here - we hear their complaining about how unfairly they are being treated. Yes, there are Democrats who are guilty too but almost all of them have been forced to step down by pressure from their own party. And when it comes to this issue you men of both parties all need to do some long needed self examination and stop whining.
8
no one worked harder to put Trump in the WhiteHouse
than Dowd. her pathological hatred of Hillary Clinton
has put us right where we are today
Cui bono. Dr. Ford has no reason to lie. She does
not fear an FBI investigation. She also passed
a lie detector test. Kavanaugh not so much.
He was selected to protect Trump from investigation
for his criminal conduct.
Ms. Dowd owns this.
13
"No one was trying to figure out the truth or do what was best for the court and the country. "
It seems that your review of your "gut wrenching" time covering Capitol Hill, the White House, and Washington DC, and the "impeachments," the "Gore-Bush horrible decision," the "Iraq War with its echoes of Vietnam," and the same GOP Congressmen sitting in judgment of Professor Ford (who is a priori righteous in word and thought cause this is the #MeToo moment), in all this time....
You missed the Democratic congresspeople who are still serving who ran from the women who were seriously assaulted and/or raped by former President Bill Clinton. Indeed, these parade of women, who were not Professors, but from lower societal strata not often visited by journalists, were humiliated, ignored, or condemned by.....
Democrats!
But I got ya covered, Maureen. Those women were part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." How do I know? Cause that came from Hillary who was warming up for her famous line fifteen years later when she referred to all those women and their men as "deplorables."
Yup. We sure have come a long way.
Not.
2
This is more like Maureen. One of your best.
1
Mr. Kavanaugh, maybe you should step back from your denials, posturing, and lying—
And think about what you did to Christine Blasey and to her life.
13
The Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are, to one degree or another, just different versions of Donald Trump. Grassley, Hatch, Graham and the others are as unfit, cowardly and corrupt as the sexual predator they enable.
Tiny, tiny men, the lot of them.
11
You were doing so well. And then you had to work your Hillary Hatred in there as an aside. Let. It. Go. Focus, Maureen - this was about Anita Hill and how those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
11
"What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep" is the same Mafia-like omerta as the Catholic Church has engaged in for centuries with respect to protecting the institution at the expense of the truth.
12
Brock Turner raped an unconscious young woman behind a dumpster. His dad thought prison would be too much punishment for a night of fun. If he were black, he would have been tased to death. Most of us who have suffered assault or rape don't tell anyone. Why would we? Our lives are ruined by a justice system rigged by white men. We move on, pick up the pieces, experience heartbreak and pain and shame. I don't care if Dr. Ford can't remember details. Kavanaugh's coded yearbook comments tell his story. But ladies, we will stick together now because we have had enough. Don't touch us without invitation because now we are gonna fight back. #MeToo.
16
Your columns are a key reason Trump is president, along with your total distain for everything Clinton. Own it.
13
Republicans have no shame about lying, cheating and stealing in order to win political battles. They think that makes them "winners."
Really it only makes them liars, cheaters and thieves.
5
Christine Blasey Ford should take a private train from California to Washington, DC, called "The #MeToo Express". I bet crowds would line the tracks cheering as her train went by! That would show those old white men who are Mitch's puppets.
5
This was a great column, reminiscent of those that earned you the nickname of The Cobra from W. But Trump has always been a troglodyte Maureen. Why did it take so long for you to ID him?
7
You harvest what you sow. After your relentless disparaging of all things Clinton, we got DJT and his minions, as they say, thanks for nothing
12
"Like Eve with the apple, she schemed to “come out of the night like a missile and destroy a man,” as Republican Senator Alan Simpson said of Hill."
The apple was a metaphor for knowledge of good and evil. To seek such knowledge--search and re-search--was to be godlike--which offended god and his marketers--stealing their thunder.
Nietzsche said god created man and was bored until he created woman. Surprise!--it's not because he liked porn. Rather he liked the exciting never ending search for good and evil--of all sorts. The search a women started--so the story goes--if GOP pols bother to get the story they shill right.
The male god industry wanted people to be childlike dependents--ignorant, sheepish followers. A woman found the life scripted for her as boring as god found an all boy garden. Good ole boys are ignoramuses.
The Hill/Blasey story is a metaphor for both feminist and academic challenges to a troglodyte political order--the ongoing search and re-search for knowledge of good and evil.
3
Ms. Dowd, you have it wrong.
History doesn't repeat itself.
It rhymes with itself.
1
I’m sure your family members are proud of their vote. I’m sure they can’t wait to see women incarcerated for using birth control.
9
Sickening to watch the pleasure on the faces of Grassley and Hatch as they assault Christine Brasey Ford.
11
Maureen, you railed against HRC, this is your reward.
5
Amid the justified clamor for an FBI investigation, I've begun to wonder if any of those 6 prior background checks they keep bragging on hadn't already uncovered unsavory material on Kavanaugh's prep school and college years. The slang and allusions in his yearbook made me sorry I looked them up.
They lined up 65 women. They ran TV ads with "I'm not political, but..." women. They featured loving little daughters and an adorable girls team. And they rushed. Oh how they rushed. Grassley seems to taps his watch saying come on little lady, shake a leg. A day you say? We'll give you 17 hours -- -- as Americans fume and wonder and wonder some more. This will not stand.
5
Really, Maureen? You had to slip another Hillary bash into this article, despite the fact that we would have been so better off if she had been sworn in in 2016.
10
Miss you Maureen. You’re the only op-ed writer at the Times capable of an unbiased opinion. With Kavanaugh we don’t have the evidence, but with Thomas we did. Thanks for reminding that Joe Biden, the committee chairman, canceled the testimony of Hill’s backup witnesses from work. What a coward. The Dems should have played hardball then when they had the numbers. Now it’s a bit of a Pyrrhic effort.
1
I still come back to you helped get these people in there Maureen. Your endless bashing of the Clintons and Obamas played a significant role in creating the false equivalency that led to Trump’s victory. So thanks for that.
12
Our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, all women, all loving, all caring, all individuals, all deserve our fairness and respect, just because...
I am disgusted by the ‘good old boys club’ surrounding this Kavanaugh appointment, one that reminds me of the joke, you know, where the posse gathers together, and shout, “...first we’re gonna have a fair trial, and then we’re gonna hang him..”
Isn’t that what McConnell said? And aren’t the remarks of his cronies, already declaring Dr. Ford a liar, the posse?
And shouldn’t all the mothers, and sisters, and daughters be outraged? And shouldn’t they all, all of them, vote this trash pile out of office?
10
Showing that poster from Yale Law School is just sick.
2
"Teddy Kennedy was mute, hobbled by his own past sins..."
I imagine he was "hobbled" as Ms Dowd refers to his silence.
I also am sicked, right to my soul, the the possible direction and future of this Republic, the Last Best Place on Earth, might hinge on the faulty 36 year old memory of a then 15 year old puking drunk girl.
I am sickened to my soul by the fact that the future of this Republic may rest in the hands of a person accused of sexual assault. Let the FBI investigate!
8
Ironic. Maureen Dowd is now horrified with the Republican theft of the 2000 election and with the Republican swift-boating of John Kerry, resulting in their winning in 2004 too.
But at the time of those campaigns, the very same Maureen Dowd was writing acidic columns belittling and demeaning the Democratic candidates as boring and wooden, compared to W. She wrote a whole column running Kerry down for wind-surfing.
I think that Dowd might do well to reflect on her past focus on superficial, stylistic defects of candidates. Is style really that important compared to the substance of issues?
13
If it's not Alan Simpson with his phallic image fighting the old enemy of men, Eve with her apple, it's some member of Trump's entourage in a wretched sex scandal. Today, it's former Trump aide Miller almost killing a woman he impregnated with an abortion pill, and while his wife was also pregnant. And Trump, the guy is a sexual predator from the word go. I can't figure out why he hasn't gone after some young White House aide, or maybe Kelly keeps them away from the Oval Office.
Clarence Thomas was a prime jerk and no one would call him out. And they want to put another one on the Supreme Court. These people are worst than the stupidest soap opera. Professional people don't bring these issues to work. Professional people know better than to behave the way these people do.
And that's before we even start to talk about Russian interference. And, the lack of understanding on Trump's and the GOP's part regarding climate change, taxation, social and economic issues is stupendous. And the lies, can't forget the lies. And the idiotic tweets.
Bottom line - do I really care about Kavanaugh and his lack of control when drinking? His inability to lie convincingly. He seems to fit right in with this crowd. It would be nice to have some people in office that took their responsibilities seriously and behaved like adults, not overgrown children. That's definitely not Trump and his crowd. Are they behaving badly so we'll be happy to have a religious nut like Pence? No
2
I'm sick to my stomach too. Now seems like a good time to remind Ms Dowd that she relentlessly bullied and belittled Al Gore throughout his campaign, mocking his environmentalism and impugning his masculinity on a regular basis in her column. So thanks so much for your bullying, you play a definitive role in electing George Bush and his neocon cabal, the folks who broke the world.
15
"...in the immortal words of Kavanaugh pal turned Hillary henchman David Brock;..."
Ah, the gratuitous Hillary swipe.
Note the words. Brock was a "pal" of Kavanaugh but a "henchman" of Hillary's when, in reality history shows it was the other way around.
But, why spoil good alliteration with facts.
7
Orin Hatch probably doesn't even remember what he said at the Anita Hill interrogation except that she was a liar. He should go sit in a rocking chair and ask himself why he hates women so much.
11
Maureen Dowd is at her devastating best here. Confirming Kavanaugh would be a tragedy.
7
yes! this piece should be shouted in the chambers. Shout it when Grassley etc open their mouths to speak, intimidate those old men until they too feel sick.
2
You wanted the not-Hillary. You got him.
And to paraphrase the football coach Dennis Green, he is who you thought he was.
So spare me the hand-wringing, Ms. Dowd. This mess is on you. Every last bit of it.
14
As one might expect Maureen Dowd summons-up Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill and Fox News bad actors to make her case for Blasey-Ford. No mention of the flimsy, uncorroborated facts of Blasey-Ford’s allegations against Judge Kavanaugh and the obvious politically motivated timing 36 years after the supposed incident took place. But facts don’t matter to the #MeToo crowd. It’s guilt by allegation, mob rules.
So why no FBI investigation? We Dems adore facts.
7
I'm shocked at Maureen Dowd's retreat from her courageous columns on Bill and Hillary Clinton. This is not primarily a question of Trump or Republicans on the Judiciary Committee.
The central issues are:
a) if an allegation with no evidence or corroboration can bring down a Supreme Court nominee now, why can't any future nominee be felled the same way? It's simple for any intelligent person to make up a "credible" allegation.
However, not only is there no corroboration here, but every person named by Dr. Ford as having been at that party has denied it - including one female.
b) substitution of mere belief for evidence. Democratic Senator after Democratic Senator has stated in a definitive way that Kavanaugh is lying. It's one thing to say that you believe Dr. Ford, but another thing entirely when you omit the qualifier that this is your subjective opinion and that we can't know for sure until there is credible evidence or corroboration. Without such qualifier our entire system of justice is undermined.
As a prime example, Senator Feinstein said she didn't know the truth of the matter, and then walked that statement back after heavy criticism form the left. She was right the first time. But now we know she will never make the Senate's Profile in Courage pantheon. My Democratic parents were pretty far left but I'm sure would be ashamed to call themselves Democrats today, in this revival of McCarthyism from the left.
2
If Kavanaugh came clean Id be wiling to give him the benefit of the doubt. But he appears to be hiding behind denials. Not Supreme Court material. The Supreme Court I supposed to be the last recourse for justice. This requires someone who is truthful even when it is difficult and go against their personal benefit. Kavanaugh is not meeting that basic standard.
5
It is one thing to insure that Judge Kavanaugh is not falsely accused and his appointment stymied by false allegations. It is quite another to assume the allegations against him are false, or to actively ignore the evidence supporting the allegations. Republicans are--to be polite--goal oriented. They are untroubled by quaint notions of morality, decency, or even-handedness because they are laser focused on "winning." We might call this principle the "McConnell Rule". Any offense against principle or the voters is acceptable if it leads to "victory." Of course, such victories are losses for America and what we aspire to be. Republicans will miss this point to their long term peril.
3
I wish we could have more nuance in these conversations. Bret Stephens did a nice job with his article laying out what’s actually known. The remaining coverage has had an agenda.
I struggle to believe either side. I struggle to think that she would come out and face this scrutiny, but then I struggle to understand why hundreds of people disrupted the proceedings before this, changing nothing but their criminal records. If hundreds were willing to be arrested, can we believe that a liberal professor, from and unknown school, who stands to gain from a career perspective might take these actions?
Anita Hill is brought up as an example over and over. She had it tough in her time, but in today’s world she’s painted as a patron saint of women’s rights. That’s an opportunity that more than 0% of the female population would take.
2
But you’re missing some important points. Blasey took a lie detector and wants an FBI investigation. That means she’s willing to be interviewed by FBI agents, where lying is a criminal offense. What about Kavanaugh? Is he willing to be formally interviewed by the FBI? What about his pal Mark Judge?
9
Hard to know where to begin. You think that women would fabricate a story of sexual assault for gain... professionally. Or in the court of public opinion.
Do you actually know any women? I encourage you, strongly, to float this theory past them. And listen to their answers.
8
I too use to walk past the Supreme Court on my way to work in the Russell Senate Office Building.
The feeling was one of great admiration and respect for the justices on that esteemed court in the summer of 1975.
I remember a Senate led by Mike Mansfield who led an earlier Senate and changed the laws of the Jim Crow era. I remember meeting on the elevator Senator PHIL Hart, the Conscience of the Senate on my first day as I entered an elevator to go to Senator Mondale’s office. I went to lunch later that day and met a smiling Max Cleland, a triple amputated, who thanked me for holding the door.
I remind my kids that the Senate was my favorite place I have had the privledge to work.
Today, I am disgusted by those that have abused the workings of this great institution.
I hope and pray it will once again become the chamber that served our country so well in times of great crisis.
8
"...the merciless pummeling of a woman who dares to obstruct the glide path of a conservative Supreme Court nominee."
So you're conceding that Christine Ford's objective in bringing this up a third of a century after the fact is political and has nothing to do with justice or equity? That she could live with her memories--accurate or not, true or not--until the golden moment arrived when it occurred to her that they could be used to further her own political agenda?
I don't know that Christine Ford's motivation is political, but her political history is no less relevant than her personal history--and her political history is far better documented. And certainly, with Senator Feinstein's involvement, the history over the last couple of years of Democrats and the Democratic Party--rigged primaries, sneaked "debate" questions, a bought-and-paid-for fake "dossier," abuse of the FISA court, kid-gloving of Hillary's emails...--make it easy to consider that the Democrats' Dirty Trick Department might be at it again.
So what do you want, Ms Dowd? That every woman who cries "rape!" be unquestioningly believed? The Duke lacrosse team might have a serious problem with that, as well as the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity of the University of Virginia. "Innocent until PROVEN guilty." That applies equally to men and women. And it's up to Dr Ford to prove her accusation, not for Mr Kavanaugh to disprove it.
If Dr Ford is going to try to destroy a man, she has to expect a fight.
5
Where as when a man tried to destroy Dr Blasey, she was expected to literally there and take it...
8
@sc
Not at all. At any time in the last 30-whatever years, including at the time of the alleged event, did Mr Kavanaugh threaten Dr Ford into silence? Not so far as I know, and if it had happened it would be all over the news by now.
Granted, in the situation, it would have been a grotesquely unfair fight between a 17-year-old guy and a 15-year-old girl, but not-yet-Dr Ford certainly could have done SOMETHING at the time, or shortly thereafter, and asked for legal and physical protection while doing it.
All kinds of conclusions can be drawn from her long silence, but that "she was expected to literally [lie] there and take it" is not one of them.
Donald Trump asking why Kavanaugh's accuser didn't come forward at the time was especially galling, considering out esteemed president smugly explained exactly why she didn't in his off-screen comments on the "Access Hollywood" tape.
10
After the hearing concludes, the witness is digitally burned as a Witch and the Republicans put Kavanaugh on the Court, Dr. Blasey needs to file her sexual assault case in the local Court and press the FBI for a full investigation.
The country, and its women, deserve that Kavanaugh get his day of reckoning, which will never come from the misogynists in the Senate.
3
Maureen, please interview more women so I can finally grasp why any woman would vote for Trump and even worse actually did.
9
Great column today, Maureen. In a nutshell. We women are being subjected to the cabal of the right...there is no pretense, there is no nuance. It is there for all of us to see. And so we must rise up this November, and start cleaning house. Congress and Senate must be disinfected and now. If not, women will continue to be treated as second class citizens by old white men that religious sects. Handmaid's Tale doesn't seem off the mark at all. A dystopian future for the fairer sex....I could see these men supporting it.
8
There are six (6) Republican women in the United States of America Senate. Do they, or their constituents, have a mother, a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a sister in-law, a grand mother, a niece, or a girlfriend? We need to start singing with all of you "You' ll never walk alone" to the brave Dr. Ford and all the wonderful women of America. Stop Kavanaugh please.
At this point in time women don't need the other Republican male Senators. As simple as that.
4
Wow. Last time I checked, Dr. Blassey Ford had offered no evidence other than her memory from 36 years ago...
3
That is totally wrong. There are her therapist's notes, her husband and the lie detector test she took.
On the other side is Kavanaugh, who has lied under oath and was an integral part of the discrediting of Anita Hill.
8
Yeah that’s why she started telling people about it in 2012...because she had a crystal ball...
8
I'm just coming to this article from having read another about the possibilities for former Mayor Bloomberg. Many have deemed at 76 he's 'too old' to be considered for president. And now, in this article, I scroll down to be reminded that Orrin Hatch is 84 and still loathsome as ever in his quest to discredit women. I watched every second of Anita Hill's testimony -- so thank you, Ms Dowd, for reminding me why I also loathe Alan Simpson. Scandal across the decades has been so unrelenting one forgets all the details.
8
Brett says he is innocent and I see no reason to doubt him. Why would he lie about such an important matter?
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and move on.
2
Why would you rather believe him over her?
6
Well, maybe, possibly, because his nomination to the pinnacle of the judiciary is at stake?
No motive for her to lie on the other hand, unless you actually think being vilified publicly, including by your president, looks like fun for her.
But believing the unbelievable is nothing new. Just ask the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland:”why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!”
6
@John Connally
He has many reasons to lie. I’ll give you three of the many... his wife and two daughters.
5
Good overview, Maureen. I add, that we have another couple of weeks to watch and we acknowledge that the Republican goon squad must tread very carefully when the go after Dr. Ford.
Like so many other Americans, I believe her accusations and just the hint of their truth disqualifies Kavanaugh.
5
First: women don't vote for a republican! Second: know full well that only enlightened people are able to give up their power, from the unenlightened power must be taken. I believe the "Keg City Club" treasurer, has a problem with alcohol, that he mastered in High school. He doesn't deserve to be a judge of any one!
6
I agree with the author. I also want to know why nobody is
looking at the outcome of that corrupt process that bullied Clarence Thomas onto the Supreme Court. We have had 2 and 1/2 decades of an incompetent Supreme Court justice, who has failed at the most fundamental task of making any meaningful contribution to the task of the Supreme Court in our democracy. He has been a silent vote for executive privilege over a Constitutionally structured balance of power. Two such autocratic lackeys on the court will destroy it - probably the Republicans real intent.
4
The Ford-Kavanaugh matter is fairly straightforward. Have both testify, then decide who is more credible. But the larger point here is this: while the moral blindness of old white male Senators to gender power dynamics is unsurprising, the curious aspect is how Collins and Murkowski will ultimately rationalize their all-too-predictable votes.
6
I'm 76 and remember all too well the racism and misogyny of the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s ... and now.
We are in trouble. Vote as if you life depended upon it. We need to cause a tsunami of blue -- nothing less. Otherwise, I will die not knowing whether democracy has a hope of surviving this dark time.
8
One thing has not changed in the discussion: every woman has been, or directly knows another woman who has been, raped or sexually assaulted.
Until she has died, no woman can really KNOW that she is safe from such an assault.
And a third thing: if rape of males were as prevalent as rape of females is, it would be an entirely different conversation we're having.
9
Ford’s claim that she cannot remember where or when or even which year the alleged sexual assault took place conveniently makes it impossible for Kavanaugh to establish a standard alibi. He can’t prove he was someplace else at the time the alleged assault took place because the time and place has not been established. But the Kavanaugh case is not a “she said/he said” case; it is a “she said/they said” case. All three of people—besides Kavanaugh—who Ford has named as being present at the party say they never attended a party similar to the party Ford describes. This include Ford’s classmate Leland Keyser. Her lawyer sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that said: “Ms. Leland Keyser has engaged me in the limited capacity to address your request for information in the email below. Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford.” Dozens of women who knew Kavanaugh as a teenager or an adult say they find Ford’s allegation unbelievable. No prosecutor would seek an indictment and no grand jury would issue an indictment when all the witnesses the accuser names supports the accused.
4
Kavanaugh has already said he was not at that party, so he must have a particular one in mind.
2
@Leonardo
Kavanaugh says he never attended a party like the one Ford has described.
Humans are imperfect and emotional. Anyone is capable of entertaining "dark", shameful thoughts or impulses in our minds. The question of justice that we struggle with today is simple: to what extent is acting out on these impulses a crime ? A husband or wife may act out "adulterous" behavior and be condemned by one society but excused in our own. Our Puritan forefathers would have supported the morality inherent in Shariah law. Today # MeToo exposes hypocrisy in judicial systems and the law when people who act out on their baser impulses hold offices of power. Such leaders will be tempted after any transgression to excuse - and then repeat - the same unacceptable behaviors using their authority to hinder or even forbid investigations that would expose their flaws. The influence powerful leaders have on the careers of subordinates and young, ambitious future leaders can be insidious: "I know Senator X is an upstanding member of the community who coaches Little League. Cardinal Y directs the childrens' choir". How can justice possibly be served when we are forbidden to address the dark side of human nature because our leaders will not allow themselves to be judged ? A long time ago a powerful leader admitted to fellow Americans in an unusual interview: "I have lusted in my heart...". Our starting point now is to choose new leaders who reflect the ability not only to control their baser behaviors but to display a similar rigorous and exemplary honesty.
3
I have a beautiful, sweet, innocent 13-year-old granddaughter who I love beyond what words can express. Two years from now I can't bear to think how I would feel and how she would feel if some older boy decided she was available to be assaulted. Her self-esteem viciously attacked. Her innocence stolen. Everything in her happy life destroyed in just a few minutes. This is the crime Brett Kavanaugh committed. He does not deserve the time of day, and if somehow Republicans allow him to move to the Supreme Court, we should not forget this, we should not forgive them, and they should lose their jobs, a small price to pay for their terrible insensitivity.
7
@John Woods as much as I agree with your sentiment, I think we have to stop framing this as "stolen innocence" or "damaged goods". It's a horrific thing even if the woman is older, not attractive, or not a virgin. It's a crime--full stop--no matter who the victim is, even if they are male. The violation is a lack of consent, not stolen virtue.
6
@Sabrina You're right. I was just thinking about this in the context of the person to whom this happened and how I would feel if it were my daughter or granddaughter.
1
Mitch McConnell has already said he has the votes to confirm Kavanaugh. If he is correct, this kangaroo court set for Thursday is meaningless. Once again our only hope is November. Should the Democrats take over the House, they can open a real investigation and if warranted, they can impeach Kavanaugh. It’s hard to believe that this is what we have to go through to obtain justice in 2018. It’s hard to believe so called religious people support Trump and Kavanaugh. And it’s hard to believe there are women in this country who still vote for Republicans. Voters who continue to aid and abet misogynists are as guilty as the men they support. They should all be shamed.
7
Is there anyone who doubts that priests--who do so much good-- also are too often sexual predators?
Is anyone really doubting all their victims who had no witnesses?
Given that well known reality:
Why in the world would anyone give a free pass to someone simply because he has been a respected member of the legal profession?
Joining the Supreme Court is NOT a right.
The judges serving there are supposed to have model characters, as well as legal brilliance.
13
What continues to baffle me is how this never seems to change generation after generation. Weren't most men currently in their 20's to 40's raised by baby boomer women who had educations and careers? Didn't most of those mothers (and lots of dads) vow to raise their sons with better attitudes toward women and put an end to antiquated views of women's work? If modeling what a modern woman looks like, acts like, and achieves isn't enough to break the clutches of toxic masculinity, what will? How do we get men--even the ones who profess to be feminists (Eric Schneiderman, anyone?)--to walk the walk and not just talk the talk? Really, we have to start asking ourselves one key question: what is so threatening to men about women's rights that putting us in our places is still preferable to treating us with respect?
3
.
Even before there WAS a #MeToo movement, Al Franken - a SITTING Senator (and, ironically, a Member of the Judiciary Committee) resigned his office because of the turmoil arising from the allegations of a woman.
Did this case ever go to court? No! (Nor did it need to.)
Kavanaugh hasn't been elected to anything ... he's still a lowly candidate. But a candidate for a very important government post: One of only 9 seats in the land - with the added bonus of being a "for life" appointment.
A single credible accusation of assault is MORE THAN ENOUGH to sink Kavanaugh's quest.
Find someone better ... we all deserve that.
12
It’s sadly revealing: all these men who were abused and molested by priests when they were children — years before being teenagers — are believed when they recall trauma of 25, 30, even 50 years ago.
But a woman is questioned when she claims sexual assault and near rape when she was 15?
Perhaps one of the old white gentlemen on Judiciary (are there any Catholics on the committee) should ask this at the hearing.
5
If the women of the US stand up and march, register and vote against these vile old men, this will be the last injustice openly forced upon them. If they don;t stand up, the bullies will win again. The Democrats don't have the courage to fight fire with fire.
6
The reason I become more and more distrustful of #metoo and the thinking around it, is simple. Bad things only happen to certain kinds of women, and although it is adopting the broad androphobia of modern feminism, only certain kinds of men are attacked. Ethics are situational and based on personalities. Ellison is not a big deal. He is not going for lifetime appointment, so look the other way. Hillary Rodham Clinton should have gotten the nuclear codes, though, even though she destroyed women who made credible accusations, including the ones WJC had to admit to in court. Women must be believed and have no reason to lie and be publicly shamed by powerful people, unless of course they are part of a bimbo eruption, or the type of women who would chase a hundred dollar bill through a trailer court. If you can vote for two senators after they make a waitress sandwich in 1985, and continue to vote for them well into the 2000's, then you cannot be serious about abusers holding power. I can support the idea of #metoo, if it is about abuse. I will oppose it, if it continues to be about politics and pet politicians.
3
Dr. Ford is damaging the #metoo movement. I think, beyond repair. And, dare I say it, she needs to see doctor!
3
Maureen Dowd has a great way of cutting to the chase on issues of sex & politics. If this spectacle of privileged white men ‘plowing through’ a nomination designed nakedly to enhance that privilege doesn’t disgust you,then you really don’t get it.
1
Do I understand this correctly: Justice Thomas may have regularly attended porno theaters, and this somehow impugns the character of Judge Kavanaugh?
Ms. Dowd, you would prefer someone closer to your political leanings, and preferably a woman, to be the Supreme Court nominee. Elections have consequences.
1
I'm surprised, Ms. Dowd. I would have expected, based on your long history expressed in this column, that you would be supporting Mr. Kavanaugh.
3
Dr.Ford stepped up to the plate, and the Republicans are trying to strike her out. She has had to step out of the way of a bean ball thrown by Hatch and other senile Republicans. Her fate rests with ten angry, out of touch, old white men. She's to be admired. A modern day Joan of Arc. Ironically, it will be Kavanaugh and the Republicans who will be marching to the Elephant's Graveyard. Justice will be served but not under Kavanaugh. Dr.Ford will hit a grand slam.
4
"to throw suspicion on a look-alike classmate at Georgetown Prep. " It has been reported that she cannot remember key details of the event from 36 years ago!
I thought that the Democrat party was in charge during the Hill matter?
1
Perhaps had Ms. Dowd not enabled and promoted candidate Trump, there would be better nominees for the Supreme Court.
7
There are parallels between the Hill/Thomas and Ford/Kavanaugh situations, to be sure, but Ms. Dowd ignores some of the more obvious ones. First, the charges against Thomas, like those against Kavanaugh, appear not to be a part of a personal pattern. Second, the respective charges appear to rely almost entirely on one person's personal recollection of histories that are subject to apparently-legitimate dispute. Third, the charges play into stereotypes (black bull; white frat boy; boys bad; girls good). Fourth, both Hill and Kavanaugh will get their opportunities to be heard by the respective committees.
As Ms. Dowd should know, the kangaroo-court-type procedures of congressional hearings may be ugly, but the most prominent ones have often resulted in generally fair results. Examples? When Joe Welch finally got the upper hand over McCarthy while defending Fred Fisher. When the Senate Select Committee ferreted out Nixon's abuses. When the Benghazi hearings exposed the callousness of Hillary ("What difference does it make?") Clinton, effectively costing her the presidency.
Let's hope that history will repeat itself in the sense of this committee helping to generate a substantively fair process and an outcome, either way on Kavanaugh, that the American people can accept as appropriate.
And look, just so you don't mistake me, I am not defending Kavanaugh if he did such a thing as alleged.
1
repeat history? Oh, no we are topping our history, as in 'can you top this?'. This time, so many years later, the GOP has degenerated into an old boys club of lecherous powerful old men who want to concentrate and consolidate power in DC...why do we have to have two supreme court justices who went to Georgetown Prep? We are used to being ruled by graduates of the Ivies, which, along with the Harvard Business Model, is gradually destroying the economic and moral fabric of the country-- but now we are recruiting only from the uber wealthy ruling elite pod around DC? When are they going to build the wall? around DC, I mean, to keep the masses out...
we have a few good cards in our hands: there is a midterm election coming up, and the GOP is already wetting their pants at the portents. They know it could get worse in the last six weeks. The Me too movement has encouraged women to stand up and be counted. Anita Hill was a lady, and I am grateful to her for her courage in standing, and withstanding the deluge. But Ms. Ford is a wild card, and I am hoping that she is not quite so much a lady, but more of a tiger.
7
Trump said, "I will have the best people".
Flynn, Manafort, Paige, Papadopoulis, Price, and Cohen are a few of his best!
Now Trump wants to appoint judge Kavanaugh to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
Is this another example of his best people or is this someone he needs to help him avoid a subpoena to testify to Mueller. Kavanaugh could even be the vote to let Trump off the hook for all his criminal acts.
Kavanaugh is at best a flawed candidate for the Supreme Court and at worst he could be guilty of attempted rape.
I am appalled that an FBI investigation is not being considered by the judiciary committee which is run by the Republicans. Why not? What are they trying to hide? Too much time they say and they need to get this done.
I have two words for these Republicans.
Merrick Garland!!!
11
Here we go again Maureen rehashing neo feminists who perverted the real heroines and heros of the 1970s who won women's equal rights.
IMO, women do not want extremes. They do not want somebody like you or any number of other feminists using the movement to beat down on men but they also don't want a admitted sexual predator like Trump.
Women went from anti feminist in 2016 to anti Trump in 2018.
They do not want either.
Learn from history Maureen or forever be condemned to repeat its worst mistakes.
1
Well Ms. Dowd:
Had you been more supportive and less snarky to Mr.s Clinton , perhaps none of this would be happening. You were an enabler for Trump. I hope no one ever forgets this fact.
17
If we have learned nothing else, we heve learned we do not learn. This is not a legal battle about evidence or truth. This is a political battle about smoothing the waters enough for the inevitable confirmation. I am not sure why the Republicans even feel the need to go through this Kabuki dance other than to rub salt on the wounds to show once again that the Democrats, in spite of their best efforts, are powerless. Dr. Blasey will have her Hunger Games moment in front of the masses looking for political theater, but she will not prevail in this game because it, too, is fixed.
I was molested by my mother's boyfriend as a girl. This guy was such an abusive monster that no one would have doubted me for a second. Even with the certainty of being believed I never talked about it. I know doubly for sure that I would not have bothered if the perpetrator was a so-called "upstanding citizen". It's a crying shame what women have to grapple with AFTER being sexually assaulted. And to think, all this sympathy for Kavanaugh being "ruined". Not sitting on the Supreme Court bench? I'm sure he won't be applying for welfare afterwards.
866
@forspanishpress1
No, he won't starve. He already has a lifetime position.
2
@forspanishpress1 blah, blah, blah. Not with this economy, everything is at an all time low. Kavanaugh wearin' tha black robe is just a matter of time.
@forspanishpress1 No, he'll probably become a lobbyist.
1
I'm a registered Democrat. The thought of having your career or life destroyed because of your actions at a teenager is a terrifying. Do we want to live in a world where anyone, anywhere, any time can ruin your life because you hurt someone's feelings?
There was no rape, there was no crime. Let's be honest, if this was a Democratic candidate for the Supreme Court, would anyone be speaking?
2
@Gerry Bard I could say a lot, but all I'll say is: get out of the Democratic Party (if you're actually in it): we've got no place left for apologists for male misbehavior, or someone who likens an alleged attempted rape to a case of "hurt feelings."
And "let's be honest": if this were a Supreme Court candidate named by a Democratic president, the sanctimonious Republicans would be calling for his head on a stake.
2
Nothing happened? Some men still don’t seem to think anything short of outright forcible rape is “anything.” Let me help.
Imagine yourself at 15, with someone bigger and heavier than you, drunk, lying on top of you and covering your mouth with his hand while you try to scream for help, working with his other hand to pull your clothes off. Meanwhile his friend is watching you, laughing, and the music from the party is too loud for anyone else to hear you struggling. I believe her when she says she thought he might accidentally kill her.
If many men think this is routine behavior for a teenaged boy, it explains a lot about why the #MeToo movement keeps exploding with new allegations. It’s about time. Blasey Ford is perfectly credible and Kavanaugh does not have the character to be on the Supreme Court.
4
To say that I am outarged is an understatement. It’s is disgusting beyond belief that Dr. Ford should be treated so suspiciously and of course we all know why. It’s the same old thing: power. And people wonder why women are so angry! Give me a break! This will only create more fury in November, when we will rip them to shreds.
6
I am proud of Christine Blasey Ford!
3
Oh, the sense of gloom and heartfelt doom. But take heart, Maureen, perhaps just perhaps we have a female Hobbit in Dr. Christine Blasey Ford who has been reluctantly forced to confront the modern day dark forces of Mordor in the Republican Judiciary Committee orcs and their Sauron hiding in the blighted blackness of The White House. The ring of power may about to be cast into the fires of Mount Doom this Thursday as a courageous, unsung heroine sheds the light of truth on the darkness of the of the aging white male Republican patriarchy. The moment of truth approaches and our nation may emerge better for it. I say that as a trauma survivor. #MeToo. And I say that as a member of a Holocaust family. #NeverAgain.
1
I hope you are right. My fear is those in power will win at all cost and deal with the consequences later.
1
I am sick to my stomach, too. But 27 years after Anita Hill and with the force of the MeToo movement, it is actually worse for a woman presenting these types of allegations in front of the Senate Judiciary Committe now than it was then. It is more than astonishing how dismissive the Republicans are of Ms. Blasey Ford's incredibly serious allegations - it is sickening. But our current Mushroom Cap in Chief, Donald Trump, sexual assaulter and misogynist of the highest order is the standard bearer of today's Republican Party, so things are bound to get even worse for women before they get better. We are in serious trouble.
6
the person who we should be putting on the supreme court is Anita Hill. washington has transitioned from a swamp to a cesspool. what we really need is a category 5 hurricane to come through the capitol and sweep all the garbage out to sea.
3
These republicans are recklessly bent on driving the nation to their lowbrow, dystopian, selfish, "grab what you can 'cause you're on your own vision".
And we're all in the back seat.
We don’t have to repeat it forever. Vote November 6
2
I have been sadder about this brutal episode than any other in the Trump travesty of a presidency. Maureen captured the feeling of anguished futility that has laid me low this entire weekend. May somehow, some way, Justice be served for this nation in all this ugliness.
4
Still remembering the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas debacle, I dreadfully and compassionately do not look forward to next week. Nothing good can come from these old geezers who have already cast aside Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. If we don't wake up and vote these guys out of office, I fear America will have a difficult time to get back to being a civilized society. That these geezers accept a president who brags about grabbing certain body part whenever is comes over him shows only their own depravity.
4
The Ed Whelan part of this story needs to be thoroughly investigated.
He knew Dr. Ford's identity before it was published, so someone leaked. Someone fed him information about the house of a classmate of Kavanaugh's. He is clearly part of a conspiracy to cast doubt on Kavanaugh's guilt, which suggests it all the more strongly.
I smell the White House all over this.
5
@Sparky:Whelan is an attorney and a member of the bar. Sanctions should be brought immediately!
2
When Dr. Ford testifies, will Zina Bash sit behind her and flash troll signs at the cameras? Ford should get to have the Wakandan women's army fill all the seats behind her to lend her their strength. If taxidermied old white men like Grassley and Hatch are going to continue to fill seats in the US senate, blocking all progress for anyone who doesn't look like them, then it's time for a new political system. May Ford be lifted and strengthened by the prayers of many women who are sick to death of these last throes of racism and patriarchy in a US that desperately needs to change. Speak, sister.
2
I have a question.
Exactly what process would be involved in transforming a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court into something like, say, a 10-year term?
The world changes at a chaotic pace, yet not at all within the Supreme Court, where lifetime appointees serve for generations.
Americans have learned from the Justice Thomas matter, which occurred a generation ago, but the Supreme Court remains not at all representative of reasonable citizens and the will of the people.
We must vote in November to change our future. This has to stop!
2
As a former detective and an attorney, and a liberal, I get it.
I’m a white male, so if a female says that 37 years ago when I was a teenager, I attacked her - I am automatically guilty. Why ? - because just like racists and misandrists in the past assumed black males were inferior and unable to control their passions around white women - today racists and misandrists assume white males are assumed unable to do so.
In fact, if the accused white male has the audacity to deny the accusations, and demand proof of guilt - that’s just outrageous insensitivity toward women and further “evidence” of guilt.
Just as I defended black males against racist and misandrist accusations of inferiority based upon their race and gender, I will defend white males against racist and misandrist accusations of inferiority based on race and gender.
I have no intention of accepting the Kafkaesque logic where all women are powerless truthful victims who must always be believed - regardless of how reasonable or unreasonable their accusations might be - and to even question the veracity of the accusations is proof you are need to be sent to the political re-education and sensitivity camps.
MLK Jr. is crying heavenly tears watching his dream of equality among all men and women being spat upon by the “liberals” who demonize an entire class of the fellow humans because of their color or gender.
My Trump supporting neighbor says “Liberals aren’t ... liberal.”
I used to disagree.
165
@Liberal “Equality” Is a Joke
"To Kill a Mockingbird" should be mandatory reading and viewing at this time. Thank you for your logical comment.
1
@Liberal “Equality” Is a Joke really? It's just a grand conspiracy against the white male!? A woman relates an attempted rape over and over spanning years prior Trump and his supreme court nominee, all documented with a series of professionals and her husband, then takes a lie detector - She's making it up? Man, that's some great detective logic there.
2
@Liberal “Equality” Is a Joke
Cry me a river. Dr. Ford is presenting evidence and has called for an investigation. It is the Republicans who are desperate to push this process through and don't want to delay or call additional witnesses. In addition, Mr. Kavanaugh faces no jail time for this offense. He just faces not getting a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. But his loss of that priveledge is somehow equated to the worst of punishment. Dr. Ford has faced death threats. She didn't want to come forward, presumably becuase she knew this was the most likely outcome. She gains nothing by this. She's submitted herself to a polygraph and submitted therapist notes from before the nomination. Yet you insist on disbelieving her and beleiving him. Ask yourself who has something to gain from lying. And ask yourself why you can look at this evidence and condemn women and Democrats.
5
Did he do it? That is the question. To her: Did he do it? She says yes.
To him: Did you do it? He says no.
How any investigation can find proof for this event of thirty whatever years ago will need an investigation of how the first investigation was done.
To me it is especially rich that for appointment to the top court of America, due process is denied the applicant. "She said, and that is the end of that" is the standard of justice. Good grief.
Every "suburban woman" the democrats claim are coming to their side has a husband, brother, or son who could just as well be facing a "she said, and that is the end of that" accusation and have it used to destroy them, 40 years hence.
They are treating this like the Jews hunting down Nazi's in South America.
3
Why suddenly is Maureen Dowd writing with some passion and purpose? After all those years of third-rate Dorothy Parker cattiness, has died finally found the inspiration to write as if the country mattered to her? After all those years carping on the Clintons and slobbering over W. Bush — our worst prez by far until now — now Maureen shows some spirit.
Well, better twenty years late than never.
10
Yes. Doomed. A cadre of nasty old men run the country. Until women can wrest power from their bony old liver-spotted hands, there is no hope.
7
The most damning aspect of the accusation against Kavanaugh is the part where they turned up the music
so that no one would hear Dr. Ford scream. A shining example of an honorable man in our up side down world. Trump once again has destroyed one of the pillars of our democracy...the Supreme Court which, in the end, will not survive the circus that is coming. Bring on the clowns.
4
That was actually the part of the story which got to me the most - that, and covering her mouth when she was screaming.
2
An excellent column, but it would have more weight if Ms.Dowd publicly apologized for her own egregious misogyny and attacks on female victims of sexual predation in past NYT pieces such as her appalling "Leech Women in Love," in which she slut shamed Monica Lewinsky and Joyce Maynard. I'm glad she's not repeating her own history, but readers have not forgotten it.
9
Yep!
2
Wow Maureen this all reminds me of the"merciless pummeling" you gave hillary clinton over the years!!!
8
I didn't believe this was possible, but I think Ford is being treated even worse than Hill. No disrespect to Hill - the way she was treated was downright evil. Men tried to erase her as a human being; yet she still shines as a beacon for strong women everywhere. Talk about mettle!
We as a country are simply in an even deeper pit of misogynistic hell at this point, it seems. As if that's possible.
Or maybe I am just an older American woman now and the biological rose-colored glasses that allow us to continue procreating are broken and buried.
Ladies, I am so sorry for the fix we are in. And I feel powerless to do much about it. I will vote for women, people of color and Democrats in the midterms and hope for the best.
But we also need to be teaching our daughters what's up.
11
I don't know how Republicans justify what they do. Serving the Democracy by serving the money and the power. Identifying themselves loudly in the marketplace as religious people. What would Jesus say? What would Abraham Lincoln say?!
I've seen a lifetime's worth of it. I will continue to vote, of course, and to march sometimes. But if the arc of justice really does bend to good, it is exceedingly slow when it comes to women. I suppose that is because we are duplicitous by nature, eh, fellas?-------------#NOT!
1
Thank you Maureen Dowd. This may be he best you have ever written. It is profoundly sad and also terrifying to live in the state of powerlessness that we American citizens find ourselves in today. It is not only the disgraceful treatment of women; it applies to democracy as we once knew it to be. We live in a country that is governed, and I use that term loosely, by an administration that is paralyzed by its own blatant hatred and fear of all that is different in culture, race and ideals. Yes, voting is the answer and I will, even though I live in a state where the districts have been ruled unconstitutional due to gerrymandering. Even though this ruling exists, “there is not enough time to correct before the November elections”. Need I say more?
4
Clearly, this is the extension of the article on the front page. At the end of the day, the only people in this country who can change this behavior are women. As long as they continue to vote for presidents like Trump because they want to make America great again, nothing will change.
3
Nothing short of frightening, when one looks around at the "men" who traditionally, were thought of as defenders of society and community against wrongdoers.
As so many leaders of Europe has already said, we are on our own. Exactly no one, is coming to our rescue.
Yes—I am sick to my stomach and also, quite frankly, I am enraged. I don’t say that lightly. These white republican men are despicable, hateful and irrational. They could give a flip about a democracy, or about anyone who is not just like them, and as a result they are running our country into the ground.
10
These Republicans make me want to vomit on their shoes. Same goes for the women who will go along with them. Susan Collins? I have contributed to the fund to defeat you, Missy, depending on your vote. I believe Dr. Ford, and I believe Prof. Hill. I don't believe any of these so-called men, and I will persist. Disgusting.
11
Apparently you don’t believe in due process.
1
This is the GOP. Behind the talk of values, the Constitution, law and order, is ... nothing.
Nothing but the lust for power forever and ever by whatever means they can get away with.
Nothing but a determination to keep this a world run by old white men where women and other lesser beings are kept in their place.
Nothing but the worship of money as a means to power, as a measure of personal status and virtue, as a tool to keep and hold their grip on everything.
Kavanaugh is one of them. He can be counted on the uphold their agenda. He was 'born and bred for this" to paraphrase the sexual predator in chief speaking at a rally yesterday. That's the only qualification he needs.
And if Kavanaugh withdraws, the only lesson they will learn is to pick someone less easily challenged, someone with a slicker manner.
They must all be removed from power. November is our last chance to make a start on cleansing the country of this fetid mass of misogynists and grifters.
6
Miracles will never cease...I agree with Maureen Dowd.
November 6, 2018. Get ready.
7
Keith Ellison, Bill Clinton....both have women still actively accusing them of assault and violent rape. The left's response to these? Silence. A passing reference is made to Ted Kennedy's sins as if he'd merely had an affair rather than being responsible for Mary Jo's Kopechne's death - he remains a lionized hero of the left. Woe to the hypocrites.
7
@Alan Changing the subject is one of the first things right-wingers and Republicans ever do in a debate. You don't get to do it this time.
4
There’s no nobility in hypocrisy. It’s a character weakness to not admit that the left rarely practices watch it preaches. The left lives in a world of double standards in which they believe talking out of both sides of their mouths is acceptable. It’s not.
1
If the democrats had presented a better candidate in 2016... Matt, Charlie, Al Franken, Les etc would still have their jobs... Flynn, Mueller, Cohen etc would be Who?who? Who? IF........
2
The win-at-any-cost conservative Republicans must see in Dr. Blasey-Ford's face the faces of their daughters and grand-daughters. If their vision is blurry then a swift knee to their manhood will open their eyes.
2
Thank you Maureen Dowd. Well said.
7
Trump a troglodyte? He'd have to raise his game to get up to that level. No, he's still worming in the primordial mud, poor man.
As for the country, we're seeing the best of what stands for human culture in America. Who's the biggest TV sponsor of the latest Kavanaugh news and for what product? Have a BigGulp and fries and get back to the videogame... Nothing to see here, folks. Move along now.
2
Thank you. #metoo
2
Whenever I see a picture of the Supreme Court Justices, I feel white hot anger anger contemplating the socially regressive and misogynist views of Alito, Gorsuch, and Roberts, and particularly at the way they have knowingly allowed “religion-creep” into this institution conceived as a bulwark for the “Separation of Church and State.”
However, the revulsion I feel for the unrepentant sexual predator Clarence Thomas, and what he clearly got away with, is almost beyond words. Maureen mentions that Thomas liked to regale friends with descriptions of the porn films he watched. We also know that Brett Kavanaugh pushed hard to make the reporting of “sexual doings” between Clinton and Monica Lewinsky as graphic as possible. If, Kavanaugh does (God forbid) make it onto our highest court, he and Thomas should have plenty to talk about.
10
Judge Kavanaugh has reportedly spent a lot of time in the White House since Dr. Blasey Ford's accusation. A peek at the advice he has surely been getting there is found in Bob Woodward's latest book, page 175, quoting Trump in another context:
"You've got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women," he said. "If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you're dead. That was a big mistake you made. You didn't come out guns blazing and just challenge them. You showed weakness. You've got to be strong. You've got to be aggressive. You've got to push back hard. You've got to deny anything that's said about you. Never admit."
Lie, lie, lie! Deny, deny, deny! Maureen, therein is the mud now caked on our hallowed institutions in Washington
12
Our history and now the present are heartbreaking. And this entire Trump charade and all its trimmings is solely the fault of Trump/Republican supporters who keep voting these starve the poor to feed the rich conmen into office under the guise of patriotism. "How dare a black man kneel during our anthem!" Middle class Republican supporters are the most gullible people to ever walk this planet. Period. The entire zeitgeist is despicable.
4
Here it comes, another pathetic showcase of republican depravity, played out for global audiences. Bread and circuses, my friends, bread and circuses.
6
Ms. Dowd seeks honesty and fortitude from the dominated GOP judicial committee where there is none to be found. You would think none of them benefitted from a Mother’s love and care. Perhaps it is true. These gentlemen (I use this appellation in sarcasm) will show no respect or understanding for Blasey-Ford because they are a cabal of cowards.
6
American history is loaded with this hypocrisy and lies. The McConnell- GOP boys are depressing as well as disgusting.
America Gets Greater And Sickening Week After Week Again and Again.
Superb writing Ms. Dowd.
2
What in the world has happened? So many years later and still dealing with untrue and ignorant claims about sexual assault. These old white men need to retire and get out of D.C. Disheartening to say the least.
3
What sickens me most is how Grassley et al believe they need only the barest veneer of justification for their actions. It stuns me they think the smallest fig leaf will hide their betrayal of office from the nation. On second thought, they must know the nation sees how corrupt they are, they just don't care, they have no shame at all.
8
Re: 'Like Eve with the apple, she schemed to “come out of the night like a missile and destroy a man,” ...'
... who deserved it.
10
Thank you Maureen. Very well said .
3
Kavanaugh is the Justice Thomas of the Trump era. Thomas is not an intellectual leader on the Court. He is not known for his contribution to legal theory and doctrine, and will not be remembered for the depth of his opinions. He rarely speaks, almost never questioning the parties appearing before the court. His is primarily known as a partisan appointment, and his nomination will forever include the footnote that leaves open the question of his suitability. It's entirely possible that Kavanaugh will find himself in exactly the same position. He may secure a lifetime appointment, but it's doubtful his will ever be seen as anything more than a political appointment. These two appointments call into question the legitimacy and authority of the Court.
13
You can write to your senators on their websites:
- The Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment and these allegations must be fully investigated, similar to any other FBI background investigation of a judicial nominee.
- Dr. Ford deserves a fair opportunity to prepare for a hearing before the Judiciary Committee, and she shouldn't be forced to testify on Monday based on an arbitrary timeline imposed by one party.
5
Perhaps Ms Dowd’s stomach ache is the result of her realizing her role in Trump’s election which is what got us where we are with Kavanaugh?
14
They are bandits, pure and simple.
3
Who paid off Kavanaugh's gambling debts? What's in the thousands of his documents the GOP won't allow us to see? When a Democrat was president he went out of his way to paint him as an impeachment-worthy sexual predator and deviant who should have been subpoenaed within an inch of his life; with a Republican in office he says the president is above all law and inquiry; a partisan hack. He perjured himself in his LAST hearing before the Senate. He couldn't remember anything in this recent evasive hearing, and couldn't comment on any future hypothetical case - he seemed to be mentally deficient. Any one of these facts should be enough to cancel his ticket to the court. Basing his fitness on the assault allegation is playing into the GOP's hands when there is so much other evidence that this man is manifestly unqualified to serve on the Supreme Court. If the Republican goal is to further taint and marginalize the court in the eyes of the governed, by all means, ram this incompetent, compromised, misogynistic theocrat through. If they wish to restore America's faith in government, they could withdraw Kavanaugh and replace him with Merrick Garland. Which scenario is more likely? Yeah. Pass the Pepto.
8
Women: dukes up, believe one another, make this moment, this time count, don't let prejudice and misogyny win! If not now, when??? As the equinox gathers its darkness today of this sordid year, and as it gathers its last possible light...I mourn for us all and cry and pray and still...if there is a shred of decency left in the US Congress...I hope that Dr. Blasy Ford will be believed and that Judge Kavanaugh will slink back to the same shadows of immorality inhabited by the current inhabitant of the White House. Let there be light, in the White House, in the Supreme Court, and in America...NOW.
7
@Margo Berdeshevsky: Sorry Margo, Kavanaugh will be appointed. The McConnell/Grassley train is in motion and cannot and will not be curtailed. The real fight comes afterward. Dr. Ford can put together a forum where she testifies with sworn affidavits from witnesses answering the questions of appointed moderators. If the Democrats grow a spine, join with the ACLU and other progressive groups, Dr. Ford can lay out her case on National television without the browbeating and shaming she would get from Grassley and a dozen old, white men.
1
Of course, as with Anita Hill, Dr. Ford has no reason to lie and Brett Kavanaugh has every reason to lie.
12
Get ready for another "high tech lynching" in reverse next week.
That the GOP will vilify Dr. Blasey is a given. They have proven with their treatment of Judge Garland that they will use any means, good or evil, honest or not, to gain the power that they crave for their vision of America. It is a last gasp of asserting their white male supremacy for as long as they can.
8
'Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed.'
Isaiah 59:14 NLT
America is watching and digesting the outright unfairness of men who have revealed their lack of integrity and good faith as they attempt to snow America.
McConnell, "...we're going to plow right through..." Whelan, an ethics lawyer no less, friend to Kavanaugh, despicable attempt to present a lie of blaming another student, naming him, posting a floor plan of the then young man's home. Donald Trump, using his usual numbskull tactics of shame, and blame to discredit a young girls horror. Grassley, Hatch, and the galley of old white men who have already stated this hearing is a perfunctory "hiccup" on the hurried path to swearing in Kavanaugh-the-liar to the post of Supreme Court Justice. Their desperation is almost palpable...
All semblance of decency went out the window with the election of private parts grabber Donald J. Trump. And the free for all began....
Kavanaugh should withdraw himself from nomination. And spare his wife, children and family this life altering trauma.
9
“Doomed to repeat it,” you say? And at the same time you call the 1991 Senate Democrats “cowards”? Really?
And just as the GOP think that Blasey is just another woman trying to sabotage or destroy a man, women think that the GOP are out to sabotage women and put them in their place.
What's that joke about what each sex is most afraid of the opposite sex doing to them?
Men are most afraid of women humiliating them.
And women are most afraid of men raping and/or killing them.
Gee, I wonder which is more harmful.
11
" including to our troglodyte president"
Gee Maureen, I still remember your columns that supported Trump & saying he didn't mean "blood out of her wherever" didn't mean what we all knew it did. You were just so chuffed he took your calls.
10
Why no mention of the sadistic torment and humiliation this creep and his cronies put Monica Lewinsky through for their political purposes?
13
Maureen, you and I live in different worlds. Once again, the liberal "conflating" one situation (Anita Hill, Trump acting like a jerk) with another and using the former situations to bolster your case re Kavanaugh, etc. is mind boggling.
This so-called "pummeling" of a woman is yet another #MeToo exaggeration of the truth. I have heard nothing but fairness with regards to her in terms of time, location, venue. But she needs to step up quickly. She is a grown-up.
Also, how can you all automatically believe someone you have never seen, heard, had the chance to observe? Funny how the liberal feminist mind gives special credence to professional women (Dr.s, lawyers) while ignoring/trashing women of lesser "status" like Paula Jones who accused the liberal Democrat Bill Clinton of sexual harassment .
People change over the years. The evil "white men" senators will be fair to this woman--even if only for being scared for their political careers, branded as misogynistic or sexist or whatever other lockstep adjectives the left can come up with to decimate a political "enemy."
4
@Marcia Stephens You forgot to mention what this jerk and his cronies did to Monica Lewinsky.
3
Brilliantly done.
27 years have passed but Dowd points out that we have hardly moved forward.
Kavanaugh's apologists notwithstanding.
4
Glad to see you remember the Thomas-Hill disgrace. You neglected to mention the chief prosecutor in that spectacle, the late Senator Arlen Spector, who tore into the twenty something Hill while the liar Thomas looked on. But your history is essentially on point. However, you left out your own later efforts to hobble Hillary and bring about this mess. A little mea culpa would have made a nice coda for your piece.
16
Until now, I had assumed that if Anita Hill were a white woman Clarence Thomas would not be a SC justice because white men have historically used white women as justification for the lynching of black men. So, it is interesting, but not shocking, to witness this group of grumpy old white males attack Dr. Blasey, a well educated and respected professional white woman. So its crystal clear that power hungry, self-serving white men will destroy anyone to maintain control of the federal government.
11
I haven't forgotten, Maureen, that you did your part to put Trump in office, with your absurd and constant attacks on Hillary. And Kavanaugh, should he be confirmed, will be part of your gift to us, as well.
18
Republicans are through. Dr Blasey and her fierce lawyers have proven that Republicans care nothing about women. Republicans, and particularly the odious old white men sitting on the Senate Judiciary Committee, have no values, no respect for Senate procedures, no understanding of history, and no soul.
7
Existential threat--
Males on the judiciary
Bashing Hill, now Ford.
3
"Leaks", lies, and old white men...the more things change, the more they stay the same.
5
Trump is asking:
"Why didn’t someone call the FBI 36 years ago?"
Can you imagine a fifteen year old child picking up the phone calling the FBI to file a complaint about a drunk?
Yeah, right!!
6
Why could the FBI reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton but not into Brett Kavanaugh?
11
It’s not too late to go after Thomas.
It’s essential that Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowsky sink Kavanaugh before he gets a pass from the Good old Boys.
Make a difference, join the march
8
Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for not stooping to throw some of that mud on the Clintons. This column achieves greater effectiveness because you kept you didn't consult your snarkasaurus. Simple and straightforward, but a fulfilling meal for readers' consumption.
4
If Kavanaugh were the type of temperament we need on the court, he would step down. He would say that his confirmation has become a distraction to the working of government (his reason for why a sitting president can't be indicted) and that for the good of the country and the court, he is removing his name from consideration. That is the honorable thing to do. That is essentially what Gore did after the supremes anointed Bush.
Be a mensch, Brett, and walk away with some shred of dignity intact.
9
History will be the ultimate judge, but I predict this present time period will be viewed as the United States was still in the dark ages. If America survives we may eventually reach the Promised Land that Martin Luther King envisioned for all oppressed people. If ever there was a need for a massive vote turn out in November, this is the time.
14
I see the FBI's previous background checks on Kavanaugh mentioned here and elsewhere. What did they cover? Did they delve deeper than checking for criminal convictions or charges?
4
It is easy to know who is telling the truth. Dr. Ford was willing to take a lie detector test, which she did. Neither Kavanaugh nor his friend Judge--both of whom deny the event--are willing to sit for a polygraph and I suspect they would also be unwilling to testify under oath with the chance for being tried for perjury. So who is telling the truth?
11
The bottom line, the not so hidden elephant(s) in the room, those who make a farce out of democracy; here they are again. Where they were 30, 40 years ago; the same corrupt old men with their lifetime sinsecures, sitting on the same committees "serving" in the Senate, where their only function has been to ensure their reigns. When "We the People" recognize what we've created and take the steps to get rid of them and allow their successors to serve for a limited period--that will be the beginning of, possibly, the restoration of our democracy.
6
The mere fact that Chrissy Blasey chose psychology as her calling seems not to be a coincident.
It is known that those having suffered from traumatic events in their youth often chose the academic fields of psychology or psychiatry as their profession in order to help others to deal with trauma.
7
84 years old with views sorely out of touch with the rest of America, especially young America-I remember the feverish push for term limits-what happened to that?
And people wonder why there is no trust in government-the majority of the country supports some form of gun control and these outdated men are pushing a gun nut judge on all of us.
Shameful.
14
If one was to draw up a game plan of how to botch a hearing on a Supreme Ct. nominee, the Republican response to Dr. Ford's allegations would be the front runner.
They now have put themselves in a lose-lose situation. If they approve the Kavanagh appointment after the testimony of Dr. Ford, they will, in essence be calling her a liar. If they decline to vote him out of committee, the Trump base will go off the rails.
In addition, voters, in particular women voters, will desert the GOP in droves, the ones who have not already left the party.
Very deserving given their treatment of Judge Garland.
8
Mad - and getting madder as these events unfold.
This is a radicalizing moment
9
always resignation and acceptance! No, we will not be doomed to repeat
4
This Supreme Court confirmation process has been a sham from the beginning. Eliminating the 60 vote filibuster threshold essentially empowered Senators representing 18% of the population to ram through Attila the Hun, if they choose. Raping and pillaging are not disqualifying.
And a fair and transparent process? Not if the end justifies the means. Kavanaugh has a long paper trail but 90% has been hidden from view. (Even with that, there's probable cause to believe he lied under oath.)
No reopened FBI investigation when that's the norm when needed for Senate confirmed candidates? Trump, of all people, prevents the FBI from doing its job.
And questioning potential corroborating witnesses under oath? Can't have that. It might actually get us closer to the truth.
Dr. Blasey's accusations seem to have a solid foundation, and Republican actions only reinforce the impression. Her treatment is not an accident. Seating Kavanaugh is intended to help undermine the Court as a representative body for generations. He's a right wing robot who will be a reliable and archly conservative vote. Or so says Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society.
And the rush to seat him is entirely arbitrary unless you consider the widespread unpopularity of Republicans ahead of the midterms. And maybe Trump's judicial jeopardy.
I'm not so much sick to my stomach as sick of the smell. To borrow a recent Trumpism, the stench in the Senate is overpowering.
19
I believe Dr Blasey and it's not just reasonable but quite likely that she would have hid the assault until the perp is nominated for such high office.
Still, could not a partisan who merely knew him back then make it up?
1
I have no doubt that the barbarous McConnoll will eventually push through a Supreme Court nominee whose views are in line with those of Kavanaugh. The destruction of women’s liberty, under the guise of protection of fetal tissue, will receive its operative in the Supreme Court, because our system of checks and balances is dead. But, please, do we have to have a man who has refused to disclose his actual documented work under the Bush presidency? And who, while trying to evade the obvious truth that he knew and participated in the Morales theft, failed to put a sensible paragraph together? This is not the best we can do, surely, no matter what you believe. The best thing that has come out of this is that Anita Hill has been remembered with respect, while C. Thomas remains the alt right yes man.
15
Well, comparison between Thomas and Kavanaugh shows that removal of a Supreme Court judge, even with well documented misbehavior not in evidence yet for Kavanaugh, isn’t gonna happen.
3
Herein lies the problem. We don't send "leaders" to the coveted Washington Dome. We send Representatives who are supposed to carry out our wishes. They rarely do.
8
The four other people alleged to be at the high school party all deny any memory of the evening, including Ford’s female friend.
The timing of the public revelations, after the hearings, seems suspiciously calculated for maximum political effect.
Some people think the history we’re repeating now is that of the Duke lacrosse scandal or the UVA Rolling Stone scandal — high profile false rape accusations for political gain.
I don’t have to remind anyone how those false accusations ultimately damaged the Women’s Movement.
5
If they all say they don’t remember anything happening, why don’t they just testify the same under oath?
3
I think it’s fair to assume that Messrs. Sessions, Mueller and Rosenstein will be fired by Trump, days after the November elections, regardless of the election outcomes.
All three men have doubtless been spending a great deal of time preparing for this eventuality, making multiple copies of records and files, secreting this information in safe places, placing it in the hands of people who can be trusted and finishing last-minute projects designed to place Trump and members of his family in jeopardy of criminal prosecution by state governments, thus increasing the likelihood that he will soon be forced to resign.
I expect that selected parts of these files will begin appearing in the Times and Washington Post before Christmas, including his tax returns, information about his business adventures with Russians and -- if we’re lucky -- detailed accounts of his violations of the Mann Act.
Trump’s end-time in the White House is already in sight. What will normal Americans do with their time without him? Pence is an extremely boring guy it won’t be very much fun to write comments about.
3
The Gender Over People party needs to be voted out! The majority of us that love our country will persevere!
6
Do you hate Trump enough?
The economy is roaring, and people of color and women are benefiting the most with lowest unemployment levels since the 60's. The meaning, dignity, and happiness that result from being able to work, support yourself and family, and give to charity can't be overstated. Unemployment is a leading cause of domestic violence. Many women and children will be spared abuse thanks to the Trump economy.
Do you hate Trump enough to undo this?
Trump administration's enhanced border security and immigration law enforcement means more criminal illegal aliens are deported or never get in. Criminal illegal aliens tend to gravitate to poor and working class communities. Most people of color live in these communities and therefore benefit the most. More women are victims of sexual assault by illegals and therefore benefit disproportionately.
Do you hate Trump enough to undo this?
Trump's supreme court nominees will defend Constitutional rights related to speech, religion, guns, assembly, property, and due process threatened by Progressivism for a generation. Preservation of these rights will benefit most the less fortunate/people of color, and women, who are traditionally more marginalized or more frequently victims of crime.
Do you hate Trump enough to undo this?
Trump's foreign policy breakthroughs may very well prevent military action with boots on the ground, benefiting the poor and people of color .
Do you hate Trump enough to undo this? If yes, vote Democrat.
103
@PhilpyYes, i do. And I will. Because all of the so-called progress you speak of, most of which is hyped-up Republican talking points (scripted for folks like you) and certainly not the result of anything Trump has done, does not excuse the immoral, totally corrupt, hypocritical personality disordered, vile creature in the White House. So, yes, I and many millions hate him that much. But thank you for fhe reminder to vote. We will.
11
@Philpy
Ahhh, this must be the view through the rose colored glasses of a Trump supporter, good to know. Yes, I hate Trump enough to vote Democratic, thank you for reminding again why that is imperative.
5
@Philpy: Amen, brother. You said it all. These quests for "democratic socialist" Utopias always end the same way -- destroying everything they hope to achieve. Hopefully, we can maintain our CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC. Not a fan of Trump, but several of the things that were passed (which could have been passed with any Republican in the presidency) are, and will be for years, good for America's future. I just wish someone in his realm could control his self-destructive instincts, which threaten all we hope to achieve.
1
Let’s face it — Ms. Ford will be a martyr to the venal committee republicans and cowardly democrats (with the exception of the #herofromHawaill).
I thank her for her sacrifice so my daughter can be just a little braver to say NO and have one fewer #metoo. Because isn’t that the goal after all??
3
Thank you for your column today.
We need to start adding our cherished Bill Clinton to the list of offenders.
We constantly questioned a young intern’s judgement for years and never fully indicted Bill of using his power to take advantage of her. Instead she was banished as opportunistic or a harlot.
If he was a Vice Chairman at a bank and she was an analyst, we’d see things differently.
But instead we still give Bill a pass.
4
@DMB no, his legacy doesn't get a pass.
1
While I'm sure women are sick over this there's another group that is being silent on this. Namely anyone that is a parent. What is this ramming through telling their 17 year olds? If you're a girl and someone tries to rape you then it's just part of growing up. And boys, it's okay, it's tough growing up. The party of values? What values? If you can put Obama's nomination on hold for a year then what's the rush now?
31
Ms. Dowd, your column not only reminded me just how slimy Republicans can be (are) but also, how absolutely hostile they are to women. Their thinly disguised pretense of fairness, their obvious mockery of justice, their disdain for Dr. Blasey speaking up and interrupting their rush to confirm Kavanaugh, all turn my stomach.
The GOP is an old white man's party where their women are subservient and do as they are told. That would be bad enough, but these old white men are cynical, dirty, desperate, willing to step on and grind their shoe on women who choose to resist.
6
@jabarry we had a congressman-wannabe here in missouri earlier this year who said he demanded his wife have dinner on the table at 6 o'clock sharp every night for him and their family. can you imagine? i bet mrs. grassley and mrs. hatch can.
2
Dr.Hill should be sitting behind Prof. Ford at the trial on Monday.
14
@Orange Orchid oh, great idea! support, remnants of the old white male cabal, super women, highest moral standard. what i wouldn't give to see anita behind christine!
1
Thank you Maureen! You can still bite the powers that wish to be!
Keep at them although it is a difficult assignment!
Speak Truth to Power! Unfortunately not many journalists do. Still being cowed or feared of losing access to the powers.
Cheers
Umiliviniq
2
And don’t forget the women who are trying to smear Dr. Blasey Ford just because it never happened to them. They are the worst.
12
He is basically a conflicted drunk and not qualified to be a judge of any kind.
15
The reason she never told anyone is because it never happened.
- Occom’s razor.
3
All true, but so sad that you trashed Hillary. She lost by 11,000 votes. How can you sleep at night?
10
@Barney Rubble ditto, barney. maureen should throw in her towel on trump-bashing since she helped put him in office. i wonder myself how she sees herself in the mirror. she has not owned up to her thrashing of hillary as if it will be forgotten. not gonna happen.
1
I hope the arrogant Republican men like Chuck Grassley will continue to fight and demean Christine Blasey for the maximum time and public exposure possible. They are showing their true face to America. In Grassley's case, for the second time.
2
I have but one question: Why does any woman put up with this?
Vote these dinosaurs out.
16
No corroboration, no witnesses, no details. 30 years of public services, including several FBI background checks - not a blemish. Sorry Maureen, this isn’t even close to Justice Thomas, / Anita Hill. Save your powder for the RBG replacement.
2
Yes, indeed, sick at my stomach. Thank you, Ms. Dowd.
3
You would think Republicans would know better than to trash talk Dr. Blasey. Oh, that's right they prefer to do it before the hearing, probably during the hearing, and probably after the hearing. Ethical behavior? That's out the door. The Commander of Spew has set the table for them. All of this to install a jurist they believe will keep the old white man privilege racket alive.
I hope the Pubs have their EpiPens handy because they are stepping on a hornets nest.
2
Senator claims that Dr. Blasey Ford must be confused.
Senator Grassley, lying about process and his motivation said: "that is not what the FBI does"; and "No other OUTSIDE investigation is necessary" (emphasis his)
Senator Graham:
"This has been a drive-by shooting when it comes to Kavanaugh," ... "I’ll listen to the lady, but we’re going to bring this to a close.”
Senator Heller:
"We got a little hiccup here with the Kavanaugh nomination,"... ..."We’ll get through this and we’ll get off to the races."
Senator Collins:
"both of them need to testify under oath next Monday."... .... "I think it's not fair to Judge Kavanaugh for her not to come forward and testify,"
Senator Corker: "Republicans extended a hand in good faith. If we don’t hear from both sides on Monday, let’s vote."
Senator McConnell:
"...here is what I want to tell you, in the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the Supreme Court….. Keep the faith, we’re going to plow right through it, and do our job"
and lest you think that appalling, misogynistic comments are limited to Republican Senators long in office, here are the thoughts of the Republican nominee for Senate in North Dakota:
"the accusation against Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh was "even more absurd" than Anita Hill's accusation against Clarence Thomas because Kavanaugh and his accuser were drunk teenagers when the alleged incident occurred." (https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/21/politics/kfile-cramer/index.html
Wow.
Shame.
12
GOP, cut your losses. Drop kavanaugh'. If you don't, you will not face a blue Wave. You will face a category 6 blue hurricane. You may gain a SC seat, but you WILL lose everything else.
11
After 27 years, you would think that men would have learned how difficult it is for anyone to admit to be sexually abused. That speaking about such a traumatic experience would be extremely difficult and hurtful. You would think.
These old men should be ashamed of themselves for putting this woman through the same nightmare that Anita Hill suffered through. What they are doing is absolutely disgusting and one can only hope that they will be called to answer for it someday.
As for Dr. Blasey, we should be proud of people like her who speak out when they see something wrong. They are the kind of person who are the backbone of our country. God bless her and keep her safe.
12
Excellent column, but, with all due respect, perhaps if Ms. Dowd hadn’t spent the year prior to the 2016 election demonizing Hillary Clinton, the “troglodyte” President might not have been elected, and we wouldn’t be dealing with still another unfit Supreme Court nominee.
12
Dear Ms. Dowd,
I want to commend both the content and the tone of your column. The content, for its historical sweep and its unsparing wholly justified criticisms. And the tone, for its utter lack of snark. It was really bracing to read a column of yours and instead of being put off by its sly and clever archness, being exhilarated by its passion and moral clarity. Oh how good it would be to read more of your opinions written in this style.
5
Please spare us your transparent hypocrisy Ms. Dowd.
You did everything in your power to bring us to this point by following the GOP playbook by demonizing Hillary Clinton and treating Donald Trump as a harmless curiosity during the 2016 election.
Considering this, women everywhere would be better served by those voices who do not give lip service to the societal mistreatment of women.
5
Your typical sexual offender harasses multiple women. So there might be 20 times more victims as perpetrators. Men like Weinstein are the real targets. Thomas was accused of a pattern of conduct and other women came forward. Getting rid of Kavanaugh is not likely to help anyone. It is a statement that even a single offense is intolerable. One strike and you’re out. I’d be inclined to require a second strike. One offense, however serious, tells me how bad Kavanaugh was on his worst day. If that’s the standard, most of us couldn’t measure up.
87
@michjas
"One strike and you’re out. I’d be inclined to require a second strike .One offense, however serious, tells me how bad Kavanaugh was on his worst day. If that’s the standard, most of us couldn’t measure up. "
You are willing to give Kavanaugh a second chance; however the victim lives with this attack every day and relives that strike in his or her mind every single day.
Often times that one strike affects their ability to trust, form meainingful relationships or even be happy.
For the victim, one strike is enough strike them out of the game of life
1
@michjas
Kavanaugh's second strike is lying about it, then and now. His third strike is lying in his previous testimony about knowing of Republican dirty tricks.
2
@michjas
No. It is a statement that when if you are appointed to judge of the highest court of the land, to become an arbiter of matters of truth, you have to tell the truth.
It means that when you are appointed to judge of the highest court in the land, to mete terms of retribution and consequences, you have to be liable to retribution and consequences.
It means that if you committed an illegal act as a young man, one that violated, terrified, and traumatized another human being, and as an adult, you have not owned, apologized for, or atoned for this act, and in fact have lied about it, then you do not deserve a seat on the highest court in the land.
7
I’m 62 so I remember Anita Hill and her testimony describing her former boss at the EEOC, i.e., Clarence Thomas. I remember the many folks who ridiculed her. And the story that she was using terminology from another source to describe Thomas’s self-moniker of “Long Dong Silver.”
When he was her boss at the EEOC, Thomas routinely regaled her her with talk about movies he’s watched with scenes of women having sex with beasts, orgies, and rape scenes. He repeatedly asked her out. He was the Director of the EEOC at the time — the federal agency charged with helping victims of sexual and other discrimination at work.
Prof. Hill was taken apart like a criminal by the men on the Judiciary Committee. I wasn’t sure who to believe at the time because I was surrounded by peers who attacked her. I was much less aware back then of the vicious discrimination women face daily in the workplace.
But I’ve been representing such women for decades now. A woman like Dr. Blasey Ford has zero incentive to lie or embellish. As a highly accomplished person she know how serious it is to accuse Kavanaugh publicly. She would not have done it if she weren’t sure about what she’s doing.
As far as Trump and the other elected officials (buffoons) who have minimized Dr. Ford ... well, just consider the source.
I admire Dr. Ford and thank her for what she is about to do. She is doing the right thing.
1686
@Scott F agreed! This is such an important moment. Can we, as nation get it right this time?
4
@Scott F
I am a lawyer who went through the Anita Hill hearings as well. As Dr. Hill was dealing with Clarence Thomas, I was dealing with misogynists in the law practice where I live.
Those of us who did understand that Dr. Ford is telling the truth on a fundamental basis in the core of our beings.
Will it matter? Probably not. Kavanaugh will be confirmed by old white men. The rest of us will consider him, as we do Clarence Thomas, unfit for the bench. Any bench, but the the Supreme Court, especially.
4
@Scott F
I remember it too. As soon as Thomas walked onstage and declared that he hadn't listened to a word of her testimony (on closed circuit TV), I knew that he was going to lie, and that every word Hill had said was true.
4
Only one party is the problem. Don’t conflate the problems as a general condemnation of politics because that blurs the true change needed.
Save our democracy. The reactionary Republican Party must be removed from power.
7
Been sick to my stomach since I watched Anita Hill, and before her Oliver North on TV. And then I saw the savaging of Obama, Hillary, the ACA. It became clear to me anyway that the country is driven by belief, rooted in highly suspicious motivations and tendencies, and not in objective evidence.
That the likes of Grassley, Hatch, and others get a single woman's vote should plain rubbish the notion of the metoo movement. The notion that women sympathize with, like, or aim to promote women - is yet in dispute. But the notion that a majority women vote consistently for misogynistic males - has ridiculously heavy and incontrovertible evidence.
The republican party has nothing to fear from American women. More women rejected Hillary because she was an accomplished women, and chose a cad. Then there was a child molester in Alabama who got 75% of white women's vote. Yeah, there are storms in the tea cup, but that is - very sadly indeed - all they are.
418
@Kalidan Hillary Clinton was rejected by most of us because of who she was. Obsessed with power and money she justified her actions as a pursuit of social justice. The justification of most would be dictators.
@Kalidan. I hope you’re wrong this time. No matter how discouraged you feel, please, please vote. Votes count; we’ve seen that again and again.
1
@wes evans "Most of us" voted for Her, not Him. And we were right, eternally right, to do so.
1
I don't buy the argument that we are being pulled back. We have made enormous progress even though the Republican Party has slid back into the mud. We may lose this battle but my mom and grand-mom, feminists in the 1940's and 1950's, would be proud of how far we've come. The part I do buy is that we have to keep fighting which is why it is so heartening to see a woman like Christine Ford come forward knowing that she would be viciously attacked again. One more thing, the comment Kavanaugh made about Georgetown Prep, the one about keeping our secrets, should on its own merit disqualify him from occupying any judicial position. Think about that -- what a shameless hack!
9
I have been thinking about lies and honesty.
There is the lie that touches no one but yourself, but the lie where you say that the person telling the truth is a liar, that seems much worse.
To tell a lie about your job experience, or whatever, that is just you. Maybe it will fly, maybe it won’t.
But to attack the integrity of another with a lie, when you yourself are the liar, that is worse.
It appears that this week we will see that. Two people saying conflicting things, one of which is not true.
3
@David Martin, neither Kavanaugh nor Blasey Ford has attacked the other.
The American people are as guilty as politicians in this investigation, many cheering on their team based on factors which have nothing to do with the simple fact of whether Kavanaugh assaulted Blasey Ford.
By prejudging the investigation’s outcome before all the evidence is known, we stoop to the mob mentality of our president and his Republican supporters. We’re better than that.
Briefly, it seems that republicans are going to great lengths to 'investigate' and, with great bias, to undermine Professor Ford's claims. But, of course, they claim that there's no reason for the professionals, the FBI, to conduct their own investigation. They remain loathsome in their hypocrisy.
5
This is the price for not voting. I am particularly struck by the initial words of Ms Dowd's first sentence...."Somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind..." It is too bad Ms Dowd did not call up those memories when considering how to deal with Hillary Clinton as a candidate. I suppose Ms Dowd will simply say that the Kavanaugh saga was an "unknown unknown". Trump was her boy.
6
This time women aren't powerless to stop this. Republican women Senators can, and should, vote "nay." In my opinion, as long as Gorsuch sits on the court, whose appointment was in clear violation of the US Constitution, Kavanaugh should be rejected on that basis alone. Time to fight fire with fire.
11
Where have you been, Maureen? I have missed (for a long time) the passion and truth that you brought to this column. Thank you for coming back. Please stay.
2
One of your best columns!!
4
Kavanaugh should be denied because he does not know or operate as if there is a separation between the executive and judiciary which has been evident with Kavanaugh's presence at the WH and the intense preparation for his testimony...As others have pointed out, if Kavanaugh is telling the truth, why the need for this preparation and why at the WH? Can't Kavanaugh afford his own lawyers and consultants?
7
I saw the headline moments after I realized I was sick to my stomach —and to my heart— about the prospects of this week’s circus. The thought of Anita Hill redux is just unbearable. #MeToo.
9
The hatred of women (misogyny) is an institution in this country. Here we see a performance of misogyny at its most obvious. How dare a woman remember an assault by a man who has been canonized for lifetime power. How dare she!
The high priests of the Misogyny will be certain to take her down and their loyal acolytes of both genders will bow and murmur assent.
It is well past time to establish and cultivate Misandry. Enough is enough. How much more obvious can it be?
4
"Feminists were less concerned with Hill’s humiliation than with using her as a bludgeon." Dowd provided specific instances--even verbatim quotes!--of how specific men gaslighted Hill, but when it comes to women, Dowd offers a blanket statement about "feminists" using Hill "as a bludgeon" without citing one shred of evidence or identifying one woman by name to back up Dowd's claim. How ironic that in a piece about unethically maligning women, Dowd applied the same double standard herself.
7
Feminists used her as a bludgeon? Dowd has spent way too much time in Washington. That blanket swipe is a silly glib overreach. Look in the mirror Dowd. You are a feminist.
1
Chuck Grassley may be smiling but if he prevails in ramming through Kavanaugh's confirmation three of five conservative justices sitting on the Supreme Court will be permanently tainted -- Clarence Thomas for sexually harassing Anita Hill, Neil Gorsuch for stealing the seat belonging to Merrick Garland and Brett Kavanaugh for being confirmed without a thorough investigation of Dr. Blasey Ford's allegation against him. And Garland and Kavanaugh will have an extra asterisk beside their names for being nominated by a president accused of being not only a sexual predator but other crimes including money laundering, obstruction of justice and conspiring with a hostile foreign power to win election.
9
@Christy Gorsuch, not Garland, will be tainted.
@Christy, you mean GORSUCH and Cavanaugb as nominated by an ethics-free predator. Otherwise, good letter...though, alas, the men in power clearly could not care less about any asterisk of shame next to their names in history. They are shameless.
1
I agree. Accepting the nomination from the troglodyte is in itself disqualifying.
The new standard: Guilty until proven innocent.
So your husband or father receives a letterform a women who claims he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago.
Your immediate response is to divorce your husband or shame your father?
The hysteria over Trump clouds the judgement of issues such as this with rage, not facts.
Three, yes, three alleged witnesses have no memory of any event but there all lying Trump supporters?
Is this is your new standard be careful what you wish for :
your husband, son or even your daughter may be next.
Facts are friendly: If she has the facts, he's toast..if not he's confirmed.
111
@Neil No one is suggesting that Kavanaugh should be divorced, vilified by his daughters, or put in jail for this. Some few are suggesting he should be impeached from the Court of Appeals, but that will never happen. However, people are suggesting that this is sufficiently damning that he should not be elevated to an even higher position, where his background as a possible sexual molester will not possibly feed into court decisions that will impact on all of us in this country. His life will not be "ruined" if he isn't confirmed. You might say that her life has already been impacted to quite a degree, and that not getting the plum of plums is an appropriate punishment for him.
@Neil Very true, parents of sons beware - guilty, guilty, guilty...
@Neil
Teenage kids do crazy things, the emotionally smart kids (and adults) apologize and make amends or try to repair the situation afterwards. This is how and when the learning takes place. Kavanaugh shows no signs of being anything other then a privileged white kid who thinks he is better than everybody else.
1
The Republican senators don't want to be seen aggressively cross-examining Dr. Ford, so they want female staffers to do the dirty work for them. That's an old trope--it isn't sexist or mean if a woman does the mauling. I am a little surprised that they 1) have women on their staffs--what woman wants to work for this kind of creep? and 2) that they trust the women to actually push their sordid "she must be fantasizing" perspective.
I'd like to see the same women who cross-examine Dr. Ford then do the cross-examination of Judge Kavanaugh. Is he brave enough to face women questioners? I would bet a lot that the fossilized senators on the committee are not that brave--or stupid.
Let's hit him with the same questions we'd like to ask the president: Remembering that you are under oath, have you been accused of inappropriate behavior by other women? Have you ever paid off any woman accusing you of unwanted sexual contact? Have you ever recommended or paid to abort an unwanted child resulting from sexual contact with a woman who was not your wife? Do you want your daughter to attend the school Dr. Ford attended and go to parties at the school you attended? What about your son? How much and how often do you drink alcohol today? And of course, all the follow-up whys? If he is asked simply if he denies everything Dr. Ford says, and he gives us a deep throated "yes, I deny it all" then this will go down in history as the biggest kangaroo court in U.S. history.
419
Say the man's name Bill Shine. The tone has changed since he was hired to be the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications.
Most of his career was spent as a producer and executive at Fox News. Most recently, he was co-president of Fox News, a position he held for 9 months before he was forced out on May 1, 2017. That didn't matter to Trump.
Shine was named in at least four lawsuits against Fox alleging sexual harassment or racial discrimination by the company.
"Mr. Shine is close to Sean Hannity, the Fox News commentator who is among the president’s highest-profile public supporters and private advisers. Mr. Trump believes Mr. Shine keenly understands how to connect with the Fox News audience, considered a proxy for the president’s political base."
I call it state run media.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us/politics/bill-shine-trump-communic...
19
Nothing in my long life watching politics compares to how I felt after the Hill/Thomas hearings. It was as if someone ripped out my heart. It was just so ugly watching what these white men did to that intelligent dignified woman. And ultimately what they did to this country by putting this blighted soul on the Supreme Court where he sits today. And I am afraid he will soon be joined by another one. Dr. Hill and Dr. Blasey have more integrity than the whole lot of them sitting like vultures under that white dome.
19
It infuriates me that the electorate insists on electing men who are not gentlemen.
6
The time has come! I am a bit sentimental for Helen Reddy's song. "I am Woman"
I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again
Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman
You can bend but never break me
'Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
'Cause you've deepened the conviction in my soul
Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman
I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin' arms across the land
But I'm still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
Until I make my brother understand
Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can face anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman
8
Fabulous on point article. Have they no shame.
4
Animal Farm. We are Animal Farm. How did Orwell know? How have we gotten to this place? It seems the WH has been coaching Kavanaugh all week on rebuttals to any and every kind of question, attack, suggestion. What ever happened to , "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor?" What ever happened to truth? Perhaps it was lost long ago at a high school party. These parties have been "social registrars" for teens for decades, the weekend places at which to be seen and to be included, particularly the high-end parties, those parties for the kids at private high schools, academies, prep schools, Catholic schools. That's where the money was. The money for really cool drugs, good liquor and lots of it. It took the kids till Wed. to recover from last weekend's party and then on Thurs. and Fri. their attention was focused on the coming weekend's offerings. No wonder so many of them were on Adderall. No wonder their mothers complained to college deans about harsh punishments for rape accusations for their sons. No one had ever disciplined their children before. Not them, anyway. They were in absentia at those weekend flings.
Dr. Blasey is scared about facing all this. In her 15 yr.-old-self she faced the immensity of the truth of Animal Farm, not with the distance or wisdom to interpret it, but she was in the mire and mud of it. The truth will be hard for her, too, but from the perspective of having learned the hard way.
6
This fiasco does not serve women. While I believe and empathize with Dr. Ford, and while I oppose J. Kavanaugh for the SCOTUS, I have no respect for the decision to bring this sex scandal out. The opponents of the nomination are merely using Dr. Ford to strangle the process in retaliation for the Republican majority blocking Obama's judicial nominees-in particular J. Garland. Women will keep being dragged back to that same place until we stop letting ourselves be used.
4
@Amy529 it' not a sex scandal. It's sexual assault, plain and simple, a crime. What's at stake is whether Kavanaugh committed a crime, and then lied about it quite recently, and whether he gets appointed to a position of tremendous power for the rest of his life.
3
Nothing changes with the republicans, at least not for the better. The old crop of reactionary old white men is replaced by a new crop of reactionary old white men and their cave man mentality persists. They probably believe themselves to be much better people than Donald Trump. They are not.
6
Really appreciate Ms. Dowd's column today! Her genuine outrage at the Republican dinosaurs on the Judiciary Committee is fully justified.
This past Thursday, the front page of the Yale Daily News paints a very disturbing picture of what kind of a young man he was. The paper includes an article about Kavanaugh’s days at the university, during which he was part of an all-boys Yale secret society called “Truth and Courage” which was referred to as “Tit and Clit.” The creepily nicknamed organization eventually disappeared in the 2010’s.
This information is critical for the individuals who must make a decision about Kavanaugh's suitability for the position of Justice of the Supreme Court. It is sickening to watch the Republican old men of Congress, misogynists all, denigrate Prof. Ford before she's even had a chance to testify, some of them actually having the gall to announce that they've already made up their minds--against her testimony.
This is a democracy?
13
Maureen: I don't agree with you at All !
As an 89 year old man, i do want someone to come "Mess" with my Body and soon, because my body hurts.
You can be male, female, young or old. I really don't care. Please come mess with (I mean fix) the ingrown nail just starting on my right toe .
I trust Maureen Dowd will overlook this ridiculous introduction to my comment here.
I am obviously trying to gain attention for what i have to say concerning --women.
Even at my age of 89 and with life's experience, i am moved completely by the heartfelt comments from the women in these columns, explaining to us their past experiences involving sexual attacks upon them.
I have been around the block a few times at 89 but these hundreds of comments from good women and all coming to us in a very few days, is---I don't know what to say !
If you know me and my fast persuasive opinions, the fact that "I don't know what to say" here, is meaningful .
I had other things to talk about but i shall stop here.
The only thing that i can add for the women reading this -is.
I am listening to you and i shall discuss your comments with other men---of all ages.
That is more important than "We are sorry" who cares?
I have space remaining so allow me to say that i can
still drive to the polls in November so to the women in these columns, i say.
"Until the men get their act together, i touch only the Democrat side of the ballot because something has gone very wrong here in the U.S of A."
7
Anita Hill is an innocent - sideswiped - pedestrian, a victim of a lying Thomas and a vicious GOP Senatorial bus.
I have never doubted her. I have never forgotten her. And I have never, ever forgotten that an accused pervert sits on our Highest Court.
One is bad enough. Two is an Abomination.
Dr. Ford is a hero. No matter the outcome, her life was forever changed by a traumatic incident around 15 years old. She may have been the only somewhat sober teenager there that day. The others may have been too intoxicated to even remember the incident.
To deny an event - if highly intoxicated - has no weight.
I believe Professor Ford.
18
@TheraP, Hill followed Thomas to different jobs, even after the alleged harassment started. Would you follow a boss to a different job if they did that to you?
As far as the Kavanaugh accuser goes, she was only a little drunk and that is why she does not remember key details?
What about her witnesses that do not agree with her?
Hopefully Kavanaugh will not be confirmed and hopefully a long awaited protest will come forth and force Thomas to resign.
9
Dr. Blasey Ford and Democrats would do well to keep the failures of 1991 front of mind.
My fear is that they will be pressed to agree to outside counsel questioning. Which would be a legal miscalculation, I fear, on the order of Gil Garcetti failing to try OJ Simpson in Brentwood: an unforced error on the d-uh scale that hobbles their own side from the get-go.
The Republicans should have considered the make-up of their Judiciary Committee members long ago. Let them own it, as with their questions for Dr. Blasey Ford. Sen. Grassley rejected an FBI investigation and additional witnesses; Democrats need to reject the quasi-legal imprimatur of a professional litigator speaking for Republicans.
3
So, it really isn't about the victim, it's about the office the accused is nominated for and political affiliation. Ellison gets a pass, because he isn't in the running for a lifetime appointment. Got it.
2
There does seem to be rush to judgement on Kavanaugh, being accused is not the same thing as being guilty. I am not sure whose recollection is correct but clearly they have different recollections. It is sad that the third party named also has no recollection of the event. It just seems like Democrats are assuming it happened and Republicans are assuming it did not happen. It is sad that politics is even an issue here as the question needs to be did it happen or not with an assumption that it did or did not. I have no idea if Kavanaugh is guilty, but if he was I am even more concerned that he is lying about it as opposed giving us his version of what happened at the party. One may be concerned about Kavanagh as a judge due his track record but that should not influence how one judges whether he was guilty of sexual assault.
3
Do you regret a little bit not having support Hillary a little bit?
I still remember when you and many others said that Hillary was as bad. T
Thanks for this nightmare presidency we are living in.
22
Don't forget that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse raised the specter of other bad behavior by Kavanaugh in an email in which Kavanaugh apologized to his friends for “growing aggressive after blowing still another dice game.”
Keep in mind, too, the 12 years of of unusually high ($200,000) credit card debt and loan that suddenly and mysteriously "disappeared" in 2017 without a trace in his personal financial records.
And, unlike Dr. Blasey, Kavanaugh refused a polygraph test.
29
What makes me sick is that anyone who "buys their ink by the barrel" can do nothing to combat what ails us all. The rule of law. In fact. Ms. Dowd is participating in character assassination. For the record, I think Judge Kavanaugh is a hack and would not support him for the SCOTUS. But, as far as the #metoo effort, I am only reminded of the closing of the film "Absence of Malice", where the protagonist is vindicated of allegations in a Court, having vigorously defended himself against the attacks by the press. Only to ask : "Where do I go to get my reputation back."
5
Sixteen of the 20 senators on the current Senate Judiciary Committee are men; three of those sat at Anita Hill's hearing. Could you imagine the outrage from the Republican party if there were 16 women and only 4 men sitting in judgement of Dr. Blasey Ford?
Yes, Maureen - it does make me sick to my stomach.
23
And there is not the normal separation of power between Trump and Judge Kavanaugh. Consider that 45COmmittee, a 501(c)(4) “social welfare organization" paid for all BK ads and also paid for $ millions of Trump ads.
(Since when do SCOTUS nominations have $ million ad campaigns?)
Because 45cmte is a "social welfare organization" they have not disclosed their donors, although the organization is supposed to have a limit of less than 50% of donations to politicians. But the tax records show much more to Trump.
Between the Federalist Org, 45 committee, meetings with GOP and Trump at the WH for "practice", and the public comments to discredit Dr. Ford, it's demonstrating an inappropriate amount of political influence and consortium between a SCOTUS and party.
Who knows if Trump has asked for a pledge of loyalty or if he will call in favors later? This does not seem like separation of power to me.
Consider the moderate that OBama nominated, Garland, which no one could find any problem with other than the Republicans didn't want another SCOTUS on Obama's watch.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/03/big-revenues-for-group-providin...
8
If Judge Kavanaugh were a smart and honest judge, he would insist that the original FBI investigation re-open to gather the facts needed to clear or corroborate his activities to the greatest extent possible.
In light of the fact that 88% of sexual assaults are never reported, when Donald Trump said:
" I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!", it proves once again that Trump is neither smart nor honest.
11
@rich
There was no fbi investigation. We t was a background check. It uncovered nothing to disparage Kavanaugh.
We are far from the concerns of government: taking out the trash, building roads, providing clean drinking water, making treaties and peace, and paving the way for commerce. The unbearable burden of such pig headed governance is a marker of how far we are from our goal.
9
@4Average Joe How about public education? Or do you classify that as 'paving the way for commerce'?
He is innocent until proven guilty. Period. She can go file a complaint with Maryland Attorney General. There is no statute of limitations on sexual assault in MD. Then the judicial system will take over. That’s how our system works. Accusations should not be be the basis for ruining anyone’s life...some on the left want accusation to be the new guilty verdict. America does not and should not work that way.
8
@Haggisman
A SCOTUS nominee is supposed be held to a higher standard than that of our criminal court system. Recall that OJ was found not guilty. Would that have been enough for you to elevate him to the highest court in the land?
5
@Haggisman Kavanaugh is not undergoing a criminal trial in the Senate hearing. He is being considered for a job--an important, lifetime appointment, but still, a job. Do you think he's worthy of this job, given what you've seen of him and his history so far? I certainly don't. Even so, I'll be watching Christine Blasey Ford's testimony with extreme interest. I don't like how she has been treated so far--it reminds me way too much of what happened to Anita Hill. If Christine Blasey Ford is as credible in her Senate hearing as Anita Hill was in hers, it will be an outrage if Kavanaugh is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice anyway. And it will deepen my distrust of and disgust for Republicans.
6
@Haggisman
But she knows that any prosecutor would decline this case at the time, mich less years later.
1
Thank you Maureen Dowd , once again for speaking plainly and truthfully to the American people ,in an era in which lying has become a daily habit of Republican politicians.
The legacy of Senators Grassley and Hatch, will be that not once, but twice they behaved with cowardice on the world stage passing their own personal agendas ,and setting aside the credible claims of a woman. I hope and pray that every woman in the US will stand up to this ,and to this hopelessly ignorant president, and vote every Republican Congressman or Senator out of office this November. Let it be a lesson to them that this still is a republic of the people by the people and for the people, and it is not a republic/ democracy for the benefit of good ol' boys who protect one another from the crime of sexual assault.
8
The "me too" movement meets the" so what?" Republican Congress. Both parties should not be judged before they tell their story but we can judge the behavior of the two side before they testify and the Republicans have been beyond the worst possible expectation. They have bullied and insulted Mrs. Ford using all the well know tactics used by every abuser, such as our President. Any woman who votes for these guys has no self respect.
22
I wonder if the Senators' wives are counseling their husbands to keep an open mind about Dr. Fords' and Brett Kavanaugh's testimony - wouldn't it be interesting to find out how THEY feel?
4
This is one of Ms Dowd’s most passionate essays. Bravo!
I always believed Anita Hill as well. And I completely understand Dr Blasey Ford’s reluctance to “come out”.
8
The Republican males on the Judiciary Committee can not in good faith question Dr. Blasey with a modicum of respect or decency and because they know they can't have decided to hire someone who will be paid by them for a show of respect.
Yes, folks, the Trump White House is producing what they consider will be a reality TV show with huge ratings potential.
All they care about is the appearance of being serious and respectful. Don't worry, Bill Shine of Fox News knows all about the ways in which old rich white men can deny, deny, deny and smear, threaten and bully. Trump is just trying to figure out how he can grab some of this attention for himself.
Dr. Blasey has a lot of courage!
8
It is unnerving to think how far women have come, only to find ourselves dragged back to the same place.
But Her Emails
9
The “but her emails” were merely code for the hatred of women who make any attempt to step out of the gender roles ordained by the old white male patriarchy.
4
It's really odd. In a good universe, the one that Maureen Dowd seems to want to be in, we would debate his credentials.
Instead, the Dems and the women want to debate what he did or did not do 36 years ago. They want to move from credentials to "character". Except for them character is not what you do, day in day out, but what you did in high school.
In what sense is it better to validate such a deranged and perverted idea of character by agreeing? Kavanaugh is qualified, and he will be confirmed.
I call on the Dems to look deep in their souls and stop this perverse equation of momentary lapses that did not even occur with character.
56
What he did in high school may be an aberration, as you suggest. But he is being recommended for one of the highest positions in the land, one he will occupy for a lifetime. There are countless men in America who have not sexually assaulted a woman, ever. Seems to me like a pretty normal bar to set, insisting that this appointment go to one of these men who has managed to keep his hands to himself. After all, aren't we supposed to look up to these people as exemplars of the highest moral character?
4
@GeorgePTyrebyter
Of course it is about character, and not solely about credentials. And, a person of good character would be calling for an FBI investigation of himself of herself, in order to ensure that this lifetime appointment was not forever darkened by an entirely credible accusation of serious wrong-doing. Judge Kavanaugh's failure to do that, and his willingness to allow his appointment to be railroaded through both speak directly to his current lack of character.
5
@GeorgePTyrebyter The issue isn't just what Kavanaugh did in high school; it's whether he is lying about it now. Does that -- perjury by a judge -- matter to you?
4
The behavior of which Kavanaugh is accused is neither rare nor confined to privileged seventeen year old boys. Such an individual has attempted a similar act earlier and even mo0re likely had it as part of his "courting" long after. Those women in the Senate and in the offices of senators are fully aware of this sometimes quasi criminal activity. They must understand a reason for the truncation of the intern experience in that body. What we have seen unfold in this accusation is only an iceberg's tip.
How many high schoolers have been objects of rape and attempted rape? What about female teachers, college students, female interns, medical students, nurses and doctors? In a society where a black man retrieving his wallet or selling cigarettes can end up dead at the hands of law enforcement, we see the details of a privileged group of white males ushering one of their tainted own into a Supreme Court seat. A Travesty!
457
@Francis Yes. These "privileged white males" insist on controlling and abusing women and their bodies by all means within their power -- whether it be by physical sexual assault or legalistic denial of reproductive choice. Time's up!
4
You would think that Fox News would be more sensitive after their experience with predators.
The most important precedent to set here is how we treat the victoim and their testimony.
18
@tom you mean the alleged victim. Every witness she claims was there denies the whole thing, including her best friend at the time.
It appears to be her word against theirs.
4
.
.
“life”- all life -“the world… is will to power, and nothing besides”
Nietzsche
And nothing could be more obvious.
12
Oh, Ms Dowd, thank you for articulating so well my own visceral feeling of disgust toward Grassley et al as well as with McConnell and their debauched president, while simultaneously already shedding tears for what I feel will be an inauspicious outcome.
I like you can not help but think back at that time when Anita Hill was the woman with the "scarlet letter" sewn onto her blouse. And every time to this day when I even see a photo of Clarence Thomas, I am repulsed and disheartened.
And now we have an equally intelligent individual with an obvious moral compass and code of ethics, a mother and wife, who is being subject to character assassination...and sexual exploitation. And death threats...how our nation has sunk to such a nadir dug by the worst of the worst. But you know what? Not only does my support for Dr. Ford remain unwavering and stronger than ever, but also my determination to send these Republican DC fools packing is growing exponentially. I will never forget this time in our American history as a woman. Never.
93
@Kathy Lollock I'm with you, Ms. Lollock, I'm an old white grandfather, a non-religious flaming Roosevelt liberal,
who sees and seethes about the injustices Republican members of a Supreme Court inflict upon innocent citizenry.
How anyone with a conscience can vote for Republicans is beyond me.
11
@Kathy Lollock and all the witnesses that the accuser have claimed deny the accusation. Are her witnesses part of a right wing conspiracy?
can we at least listen to what both have to say before condemning either?
19
@pierre
Dowd is condemning the Congressmen handling this accusation, not Ford or Kavanaugh. And I think that's right on. As an independent voter, I am paying very close attention to how the Republican party has behaved, and it's clear foremost by their refusal to have the FBI to look into this, that they have no interest in the truth, only in ramming through their man, even if it means demeaning one woman or all women with similar situations.
23
@pierre
Absolutely! I've listened to Kavanaugh (and his former classmates) recall their boorish behavior in high school and college (and apparently law school!) with wistful longing. The misogynist attitude at Georgetown Prep is not denied by Kavanaugh's classmates. But now (to quote Mr. Kavanaugh) "what happened at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep" is no longer staying there!
8
@Treetop, the alleged assault does not fall into the FBI's jurisdiction. It goes to the police in the place where it happened. Of course, no one knows where that was, so how can there be an investigation?
The accuser doesn't have a clue where it was, how she got there or how she got home. So there is no one to determine where the alleged incident took place.
Vote like your rights depend on it.
60
@Linda "like?" Vote! Your rights depend on it!
1
15 years old is a kid. Our paragons of leadership, Senators and the Catholic Church, are criminal in their treatment of children. If we are not clear about taking care of our kids, the US is a failure.
60
Don’t worry, we’re MAGA right now.
1
There will be demonstrations. This time the entire GOP will go down in shame.
24
I'm glad to hear from you Maureen! However, I feel there isn't much in common with the two allegations. There is absolutely no corroborating evidence or testimony within Kavanaugh's entire life that suggest a character that could have done what she claims. He's been cleared by the FBI SIX times!! In fact, there is a ton of testimonials and history that attest to him being a fine father, teacher, husband and judge. I saw the hearing that entire week. I am alarmed by the mob mentality that will forever cast a shadow on this man's character. Who would ever consider hearing the accuser after the accused? Shame on all of you. If there is evidence of other behavior that suggests culpability then of course remove him from consideration however up to now I see no reason to do such a thing.
I was sexually attacked... battered , threatened etc when i was 19... that was decades ago... and that trauma left me w memories I'll never forget... unlike Dr. Ford... I can remember the exact place and who was around me. I didn't tell my parents but I couldn't help but tell at least a few of my friends. I think shes dragging her feet because she realizes she could very well be mistaken... remember, she was at those "drinkfests" too... she even told her therapist a different story. This is all so ugly... I feel bad for everyone involved.. except of course for all the politicians. Yuck.
22
Actually Judge Kavanaugh has proven himself to be a liar and a man who conveniently ‘evolves’ in his thinking. That’s how badly he wants this appointment. You don’t think he would lie about this episode to secure it? I do.
On the other hand, Dr Blasey Ford gains nothing from coming forward.
Memory is a strange thing. Traumatic events are clearer in one’s memory for sure. But not all aspects of the event. And a 15 year old girl might be trying to forget and pretend nothing had happened to her. Her classmates say she changed, became less open, quieter in that year.
So yes, I believe her. I believe she is very brave to come forward.
34
@DKC
I keep asking myself, knowing what she would face, why would she risk everything to come forward? I also have to ask, given all the attacks she has had to endure, why her reputation is not as important as Kavanaugh's. All this outcry that she is ruining this man's reputation. If he has nothing to hide I think he should allow the FBI to investigate this allegation. If they find nothing he will be vindicated. I'm sick of women having to put up with this kind of savage behavior only to endure more trauma if they tell. It's disgusting.
I have never been raped but my (special needs) son was raped by a peer. I never told any one but we knew something was wrong because of his behavior afterwards. Finally, he broke down and told up what happened. We were shocked. He hid this from us for 8 months but we knew something had happened to him. We reported it and he was evaluated and they deemed his account of what happened as credible. BUT all the young man who did this had to do was deny it happened and that was the end of it. Only it wasn't, not for my son who continued to be tormented by this animal and his horrible memories. And then there was that adults, therapists, law enforcement who failed him. Calling him a liar as he slipped further in to depression. This is why people don't come forward and this is why I believe Dr. Ford.
905
@DKC:what is your source for the bit about telling her psychologist a different story? Believe me, during trauma, an amazing amount of detail can be seared into your brain. You may be the exception.
9
Thanks for this thoughtful piece, Ms. Dowd.
Extra thanks for this ... "our troglodyte president," an absolutely outstanding, resonant usage of language with precision placement.
56
As the grandson of farmers in Kansas,
As an altar boy and Eagle Scout,
As a summa cum laude graduate of Notre Dame,
As a Medical Doctor employed by a non-profit hospital that is ranked the best in the US,
As a clinician who has listened to and cared for tens of thousands of people from every walk of life,
As a father of children who were sexually assaulted by classmates and strangers,
As a believer in the One who taught us with parables, miracles and the Beatitudes,
I call on Us All to raise our voices into votes, united into a powerful wind, the wind of the Spirit of Justice and Truth,
And drive out the evil mendacity before us,
A hurricane of truth,
A howling deluge of justice,
Now,
For it is time.
This is that time.
For Us All.
211
@Toms Quill
amen, well said and thank you for your service!
2
@Toms Quill
. . . to vote republican, right?
Just as Trump said, “Russia, if you are listening, please find those 30,000 missing Hillary emails,” I say:
“Russia, if you’re listening, please find other women who were assaulted by this Supreme Court nominee.”
If Trump can publicly solicit your assistance, Russia, why can’t we?
But this time use your power for the greater good.
32
@Chrislav
That seems like asking the beezelbub to perform the Miricle of Multitudes,
1
Why don't women say anything? Anita Hill. And no Dr. Ford. Thomas should be removed from the court and Kavenaugh step down from the nomination. Not my court, not my laws.
40
@poslug, what proof do you have the new Supreme Court judge is guilty? Thus don’t care if he’s guilty or not. Democrats are using you and ford for their little delay game and the me too crowd is not smart enough to know they are being played to do democrats dirty work. You both deserve each other Judge Kavanaugh will be a great judge and will keep the highest court conservative for many years to come. Don’t be surprised of the character assignation train keeps rolling down the tracks. Nice try but a little Whiney.
1
Could Trump be the serial accoster/adulterer he appears to be, some pro-lifers the radical violent activists they have shown themselves to be and Dr. Blasey Ford a liar making this whole thing up? Yes, yes and yes. She must be thoroughly cross-examined, regardless how uncomfortable it will be. Anything less would be unfair to the system.
2
@Charles and, of course Kavanaugh needs to be thoroughly cross-examined as well - but that shouldn't be too hard for him, since he's been hunkered down at the WH for the last two weeks being prepared by a team of lawyers on how to respond (i.e., double speak) except, of course, when he refuses to answer THEIR questions because they're "too personal".
6
@PenguinLady. since the accusation does not have a time or a place, how does one defend that they were not "there"?
How does one establish an alibi when there are no specific times or places?
Can you account for every day for 2 years back when you were 15?
@Charles and your notion of fairness to the system
A "thorough" cross-examination in a kangaroo court with corroborating witnesses barred and with no proper investigation is not a fair or just proceeding. The Republican men controlling the proceedings have clearly and publicly proclaimed their position against Ford and against any rational investigation that would shed light. They turn a blind eye to further inappropriate behavior (i.e., Trump's tweets) and to unethical machinations targeting Ford (leak to Ed Whelan, friend of Kavanaugh). From the outset they blocked the most essential documents necessary to evaluate their candidate.
Why the feverish, artificial deadlines? They are desperate to ram Kavanaugh through before midterm elections weaken their ability to pack the Court with extreme, partisan right-wingers.
It's crystal clear the GOP is hellbent on making their Anointed into their Appointed, and they don't care how unethically they have to behave to accomplish this.
Might does NOT make right, and the end does NOT justify the means.
2
As a survivor of sexual assault, I believe Dr. Blasey and understand why she did not inform her parents -- I never did. There is so much shame and self-blame involved in being a victim of such a crime. The President's and Republican senators response to this situation is disgusting and reveals their true feelings towards women. Furthermore, when they publicly doubt -- read attack' -- the veracity of Dr. Blasey's testimony they are attacking a 15-year old girl. For shame.
66
@Barbara Goldstein, she would be more believable if she had ANY evidence.
She has no recollection of when or where it took place.
If someone came out tomorrow and claimed that you sexually assaulted them, but was not sure of what year it happened or where, would that someone be believable?
Would you quit your job because of this baseless allegation?
1
We doom ourselves to repeat history because we outsource our moral fiber and citizenly obligation to lobbyists, charlatans and demagogues. Several things are different today from the days of Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, most notably #MeToo and the Internet.
But a key factor in the coming charade remains unchanged, and that is Ms. Dowd's depiction of "Republican liars and Democratic cowards." With a mere handful of exceptions, Ms. Dowd's characterization holds true to this day.
56
No mention of Keith Ellison? It would seem that these events sicken you to the point of writing about them only when conservatives are the ones who are the alleged perpetrators.
13
@Dan
Two words: lifetime appointment. And justices get to decide how people must live their lives under the law. Their influence is far greater than that exerted by a single member of Congress. That’s why each one undergoes close scrutiny.
68
@Dan
I wasn't aware Keith Ellison was up for a Supreme Court appointment. But I imagine my news sources operate more in the real universe. Whataboutism is a very weak and essentially irrelevant counter to the Kavanaugh accusations.
103
@Dan: Keith Ellison is Trump's new Supreme Court nominee?
1
The GOP has been a hive of despicable, racist, ideological low-lifes for decades. Now has had its final degradation. It has become the Party of Trump.
There is only one solution. Elect women. Elect Democrats. Elect Democratic women. Period.
RIP GOP.
115
Oh no, this will end well. I am confident that when Dr. Ford testifies it will be absolutely apparent that she is telling the truth.
The time is over for these old, white, Republican men. They no longer are believed...in fact these people are an anaqranistic
joke. For the first time since Trump was “elected” I feel an optimistism; there has to be good in this world!! And this good is voting in November!!
22
This time around, its not going to end well for the GOP, especially the members of the Judiciary committee. Grassley and Graham should be opposed by responsible politicians if they dare to stand for election again. Hatch, too bad, is retiring. He should have been bounced out.
Cruz the egregious, I sincerely hope is on his last legs (people, send in donations to Beto,) and we need to monitor the rest. Who is this Cornyn character, anyway?
We have to target them individually and get them out from under the rocks and end their careers.
Unfortunately we have to throw out the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, Joe Biden. Any dreams of running for President is over, the Anita Hill crucifixion memories are coming back and he does not come out well.
But we still have the Thomas body blow, what do we do with him? The #MeToo movement has to find a solution for this guy.
32
@Gary Valan
Thomas can still be impeached for lying during his confirmation hearings. It's not too late to remove this disgrace from the Court.
1
Why don't we see other western countries going through such thoroughly degrading and uncouth procedures to demean the status of women as much as possible, which makes America the laughing stock among civilized nations? Perhaps it is because the deplorable part of America is represented first and foremost by sanctimonious, utmost hypocritical men, violent men, yes - Republican men!
49
Is it degrading to ask a woman to prove her story before we destroy another human being? Are women not tough enough that we can ask such a things?
2
@Nicholas You are right on, Nick, but I am disgusted and disheartened by the number of women who whole heartedly support the Republican anti women crusade.
The women we see at rallies that have their T shirts that state "I am a proud Deplorable", the women waving their placards "Women for Trump".
Do these women wish to be grabbed by their privates by misogynist men? Are they sadists who have no respect for their gender? What gives with such depravity?
7
@Nicholas or perhaps it is because the accuser has absolutely no evidence whatsoever about the allegation.
Even her witnesses, some of whom are female, deny it happened.
Wonderful column Maureen. If he's confirmed+blue wave that turns the senate blue=impeach the judge straightaway.
24
C’mon, there’s no blue wave coming. That’s just a media construct used to sell advertising to hopeful libs. The cringeworthy behavior of libs, from Antifa to Ellison, from Waters to BLM is distasteful to the vast majority of Americans.
1
The Republican Party of today has all the intellect and character of an overflowing coal ash pond.
31
@Steve Bolger
Don't forget the toxicity. The GOP is hazardous to your health.
4
Ms.Dowd, you are in rare and precise form on this! Nice to see . I have missed your precision ;tis a shame you neglected to mention Arlen Specter's abhorrent grilling of Ms.Hill. As a side note, 90% of Judge Souse`'s records still have not been released. The good ole white boys are really doing the Texas Two Step on this one. We know why the rush and push, but "paybacks are a mitch!" If and when the gop loses power, this ,hopefully,will not be forgotten by the Democrats. Besides, nothing to say a Justice ,or a President,can't be impeached.
23
I'm glad you describe Bush v Gore as the travesty it was. While it's hard to pinpoint exactly when the modern political horror began (1968 Southern Strategy?, Reagan's Iran Contra?, 1994 Gingrich and GoPac) what's clear as that the credibility of the US Supreme Court died with Bush v Gore -- a decision reached through pure partisan hackery.
And who was knee deep in the Florida recount, and its "Brooks Brothers Riot"? Why Bart O'Kananaugh -- fresh off his hyper-partisan stints harassing Vince Foster's poor family and seething with rage over Bill Clinton's strange use of the small bin in the Oval Office pantry. (Also according to David Brock, whom you mentioned, Bart 'O let fly a disgustingly sexist remark at the sight of Hillary Clinton on a TV screen.)
It is all rather depressing.
60
What a column , me too Ms. Dowd remember the humiliation of Anita Hill, that was in the 90’s.
This is 2018 nothing much have changed since that , we still have all white male in Republican committee . They all are ready to look down at Dr. Ford and humiliate her and discredit her.
67
There is much to be disgusted by. I can't pick my top one - but the fact that TWENTY SEVEN years after Thomas-Hill there are the same white men presiding over this committee is loathsome. If I won the lottery my life's work would working to enact term limits.
111
And Orrin Hatch is still confused.
5
@Scott Kennedy, and 27 years after the Democrats put a woman who was not believable in an accusation against a justice nominee, they try to the same thing again.
Thomas called it a high tech lynching.
Even liberal justice Ginsburg has called this a highly partisan show.
1
No, we won’t repeat history - because this time, millions of women are united behind the victim. All Dr. Blasey asked for was due process - exactly what the Republicans are claiming that men are being denied by #metoo. She won’t get it; her witnesses will not be heard, her corroborating evidence will not be admitted into the record. Kavanaugh will not have to face questioning by an impartial investigator.
The Republicans are determined to turn this hearing into another “he said, she said,” then smear and slander Dr. Blasey. But this time is different - because on November 6, and again in 2020, women will lead the charge to vote this gang of hoodlums out. McConnell and Grassley may hold their kangaroo court, but this time there will be a gallery, metaphorical and actual, filled with outraged, determined women voters.
You’ll get your stolen Supreme Court seat, Mitch, but at what cost? As FDR’s Supreme Court learned, even a life-tenured judicial majority cannot stop progress. The people run this country, not 5 demented middle-aged men.
We’re coming to get you, Mitch and friends, in the way that, as my mother told me, all crooks and other villains are undone - by the people, through due process and in the voting booth.
The smeared, battered, abused, angry, brave, smart, determined, indomitable women are coming for you, Mitch - as are the men who care about those women - and this time, unlike last time, you’ll get got.
106
@RCT
Keep up she has agreed to testify under the guidance of her handlers from activist city!
1
@RCT, her witnesses have been heard. It has been reported that those witnesses have said that the allegation did not occur.
It is the Dems that have turned this into a "kangaroo court" starting with Kamala Harris and Cory Sparticus Booker.
1
No, N Riano: they’ve said that they don’t remember that it occurred and, since it allegedly happened behind a closed door, they wouldn’t have known. They have not been interviewed by the FBI, nor were other guests interviewed to establish whether Dr. Beasley and the two young men she’s named were at the party. There has been no FBI investigation.
5
No! We shall not repeat this history which is NOT forgotten. Dr Ford will prevail and these horrid men will go to the dustpan of history.
I will vote Republican no more forever!!
74
@Sue, so you don't believe in innocent until proven guilty?
If someone came out tomorrow and accused you of sexual assault, with no proof whatsoever, would you resign from your job right away?
Why or why not?
And should everyone believe the accuser even if there is no evidence of it?
2
I have to admit... I loved Dowd’s columns for years but when she soft pedaled Trump while pillorying Hillary I was discouraged . Yes, there was much to criticize about Hillary Clinton but Dowd should have known ( and probably did)what a narcissist , insecure bully Trump was. Yet, she barely addressed his countless flaws him throughout the election. It has only been recently where she seems to realize that he is worse than any of us could have imagined. And Kavanaugh is a by product of Trump and old white men in suits who cling to power at all costs.
That said, this is one of her best columns in several years. Sums it all up. Old white men in ties, wondering want has happened to the old world order, trying to navigate though the #Metoo movement. Rocky waters for all of us but especially for them.
54
In addition to the Jane Mayer book mentioned by Ms Dowd, the following book, on a case of a woman who did report an assault and how that was handled by the authorities, is very informative: Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by John Krakauer
23
As Americans, the only thing we have, and can do to dispute this "kangaroo court" and its clown committee, is to keep publishing articles such as these, which expose the schemers as they are.
22
@victor g, yes, we have to expose the Democrat schemers. They sit on an unsubstantiated and unprovable allegation for months (because it is so serious? Then they convict a nominee without any investigation.
I guess the left does not believe in innocent until proven guilty unless it is one of their own.
Maureen, you’re completely wrong to claim that we are repeating history by comparing the Anita Hill hearings to this Blasey allegation. Prof. Hill claimed repeated workplace harassment by an adult - in fact, a professional (Clarence Thomas). They were not teenagers at an after hours party who may have had too much to drink. And Prof. Hill gave specific details, dates, and circumstances to back up her allegations. Blasey’s given us almost nothing besides her memories. In fact, every single person named by Blasey - that’s by Blasey herself - as being at this teenage drinking party 36 years ago has now given official statements that they either recall no such event, or that her allegation is “nuts.” If we are all after the truth, then let’s see where the truth leads us. Let’s not attack Judge Kavanaugh by comparing him to Clarence Thomas, just because you oppose Kavanaugh’s politics.
105
@W Greene You're right. The behavior Kavanaugh is accused is far worse than Hill's accusations against Clarence Thomas.
5
@W Greene She gave the name of the third person in the room, who has written for years about the culture
of drunken puking blacking out fun times at school, including with a guy named Bart O'Kananaugh. Mark Judge says it never happened, but he will not say it never happened under oath. Why not? Let's not forget that this is not the only "hiccup" in this process for Bart. He has refused to let America see 100,000 documents from his career, he left out crucial statements in docs he did submit, and more than one person with firsthand knowledge on the subject says he lied in this and previous confirmation hearings. Another one of Trump's best people.
1
@W Greene wow. you are distinguishing the crimes that is it-a crime is a crime. No wonder you live in the "great" state of Texas
I remember. Thank you.
10
Just as Sidney Poitier and Barack Obama had to represent the highest standards to be taken seriously as African-Americans, so Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford had to be professors to be taken even half-way seriously as women. And even then, a self-confessed groper like the current occupant of the White House sneers at Dr. Ford and her parents.
As the father of daughters, this sickens me too to my stomach.
220
I can usually count on Mo for a laugh or two, but today I'm just #sad.
63
Thanks, Maureen. It’s good to know for certain where your heart lies. Although I don’t know where else it could be—surely not with these Grassley men. Or maybe I should say Trump men.
6
On campus at Boise State this morning, I was talking with a male student about this case. He was recovering from a very bad hangover. I asked him, in all the times that you've been really drunk, did you ever consider sexually assaulting a woman? He said, "Never. But, you know the guys that do and it has nothing to do with the alcohol."
Rape is about power and this guy really, really wants to be on the Supreme Court.
66
I keep hearing that we need term limits for congress by the right wing. Yet Orin is still around. McCain grabbed another term But they really mean that they want term limits for Dems. This Current GOP is a disgusting lot.
Yet they keep getting re-elected and the people supporting them just don't seem to care about how nasty they are to every day humans of all stripes.
55
This story unfolding now in America is heartbreaking. Truly,
truly heartbreaking.
It feels like there is an enormous effort, by the men, to hang onto their long held position of control and power. They must be very frightend and will sink to any low at all to hold onto their position in the hierarchy.
These men are like wounded animals.......they are very, very dangerous.
56
I think it's telling, Maureen, that you boil everything down at the very end by alluding to Murdoch, who at the end of the day, may be more culpable than anyone else for the architecture we seem to have built now.
Now, you can't vote Rupert out, and his term seems to be without end. But he is from Australia. He is not from this country.
Hey ICE?!
17
For the life of me I cannot envision how you can put two doors in a normal bedroom. I tend to believe the professor but it all smacks of the inequality we are living with. Bet the hurricane victims would have liked two doors. Bet the poor children on the border would have liked one door.
3
What the old-man’s squad of Republicans are putting Dr. Ford through shows once again how far American Politics has fallen. Only “winning” matters, to win at all costs, and, if truth is destroyed in the process, well, that’s no big deal. Here’s a truth we shouldn’t forget: when Trump’s senior aide, Rob Porter, was accused of beating his wife black and blue, which turned out to be true, Senator Hatch from Utah supported Porter and not his abused wife. Hatch now sits in judgment of Ms. Ford.
42
There is a difference between committing a heinous act as a teenager, taking responsibility for it and making genuine amends for it and having or allowing the ‘system’ in all its diverse manifestations to run hog wild for you. As a life-long Independent I have come to observe that politicians who are Republicans, more so than Democrats, are mean-spirited and nasty.
79
Comparing the current drama to the Hill-Thomas hearings is silly. I remember watching those hearings at night, gavel to gavel, having set my VCR to record C-SPAN using the 6-hour tape setting when I was away at work.
But Dr. Ford was 15 - Kavanaugh was 17. He was drunk, maybe she was too. This was a one-time incident. She probably never saw him again ever afterwards (not like Hill who followed Thomas from job to job). This happened 35 years ago (Hill-Thomas happened within 10 years of the hearings).
Numerous women have come forward to support Kavanaugh's character. There has not been one other woman who has accused him of any misconduct. And this guy has been in the public eye for so long.
But the NY Times and the Dems have already believed Dr. Ford without even hearing from her. Or him.
The only thing I agree with Dowd is the title of the story. But for reasons vastly different.
24
@Rajkamal Rao
After what Dr. Ford has had to endure in the press and on the Web, upending her life, do you think one other woman would come forward? Really?
Kavanaugh has his female supporters, true. His record, or the 10% of it made public, isn't sterling, regardless the number of females he can find to attest to his character.
Remember, it was Dr. Ford who asked that the FBI investigate her claims. Judge Kavanuagh did not, nor did he support her call for the same. Why not? What would be uncovered?
In which world does a victim ask for an FBI investigation?
In this world, lying to the FBI would precipitate far more punishment added to what Dr. Ford has unfortunately had to endure for initially requesting anonymity.
Set your DVR this time to C-SPAN so you might hear first-hand what is attested to next week. I suspect all of us will learn things we can only wonder about now.
1
@Rajkamal Rao Your arguments contradict each other: on the one hand, they were young, and drunk - so, what he did doesn’t count, and on the other hand, no other women have accused him - so, he must be innocent. You’re sold on his innocence, but his opponents have pre-judged him.
3
@Rajkamal Rao
What's with the "one time incident" excuse? So, if someone raped you but not anyone else, are you saying the rape is inconsequential? Or if someone's teenage daughter was assaulted by a peer would it not matter because the perpetrator was also a teen?
Sexual assaults by priests also happened 40-50 years ago, and, when men come forward they are given a sympathetic hearing, however, when women come forward they are treated as liars. No one asks the men why they didn't speak up before, or tell their "loving parents", or that it was too long ago to matter.
If Kavanaugh wants to fight this why is he not screaming from the rooftops to have the FBI investigate these claims? Could it be that he does not want to perjure himself?
And, there is something decidedly shady about the Republicans withholding 200,000 pages of documents on Kavanaugh. Maybe there are other accusations in them that will never see the light of day.
Also, numerous people have vouched for Dr. Ford's character and you don't seem to regard that as worthy of mention.
For all the people who ask why she didn't speak up before please take into account the the vitriol, disbelief and death threats she is experiencing after 36 years and wonder no more. In addition to the assault it is the treatment by society that makes most of us sick to our stomachs.
1
Then, as now, the pity is not that the woman is disbelieved, but that it doesn't matter.
87
Trump’s suggestion that she should have come forward when she was 15 is ridiculous. Look at what happened to Owen Labrie’s victim when she reported her rape.
Owen Labrie was a popular boy with a bright future. He even planned to attend Harvard Divinity school!
The 15 year old St. Paul’s rape victim was shunned and harassed by everyone at her prep school. She was forced to withdraw from the school. The same thing would have happened to Dr Ford as happened to Labrie’s victim. It would probably even have been worse.
35
A thousand amens! It took the arrival of Donald Trump and his slimy retinue to bring you around but you are now a powerful voice against this chorus of professed Conservatives and Evangelicals who are trying to take us backward 100 years. Keep writing.
66
Yes this is the Anita Hill hearings all over again only it has gotten worse not better. Now,all the social media rumors trying to destroy Dr. Ford's character that have been debunked but not adequately corrected and left on the web for people to read and believe. And we have cable TV, Laura Ingram stating that Dr. Ford's students gave her terrible ratings, saying she had a dark personality and was vindictive. Turns out wrong Professor Ford wrong school, so much for Fox vetting its sources. Also, there are the usual cast of white males, including Trump of Access Hollywood fame, intimating that she is lying. However, the worst and probably the most arrogant and stupid of the GOP antics, is Mitch McConnell stating before Dr. Ford even testifies, that no matter what happens Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed. This means that no matter what Dr. Ford testifies to, she will not be believed or they don't care. So much for her looking forward to a fair hearing where there has been no FBI investigation and no other witnesses, both requested by Dr. Ford, who also passed a lie detector test. McConnell stupidly gave away the GOP's real intentions, they don't care if she is telling the truth, they will confirm their guy anyway, regardless of his character. A disgrace to our Country and to the Truth.
317
I am shocked to think that we are still in history concerning the double standard concerning males and females. Last time I checked, a 17 year old male is capable of fathering a child. So “boys will be boys” and girls could be left with the consequences for the rest of their lives. What happens to these girls? Don’t rely on abortion from the Supreme Court which could include Judge Kavanaugh. He wasn’t helpful to the pregnant teenager in front of him recently. In Ireland, until recently, pregnant poor girls got sent to the Magdalene Laundries and their offspring were adopted if lucky or buried in the churchyard if not. All this was done with the connivance of male church authority figures.
I vividly remember, at the age of 7 in 1948, being terrified at the thought of being sent to Australia like the war “orphans” that I saw in the newspapers of the day. Only years later, did we find out about the excesses meted out to them because many of them were throwaway illegitimate children. My fears were justified.
We need to educate both genders in realistic sex education.
18
Ms. Dowd, ever the master of barbed wit, is equally impressive in high dudgeon. I pray that her infectious anger reminds voters of the aggressive and corrupt Republican war on America that gave us a SCOTUS which imposed upon us the disastrous presidency of G.W. Bush, and the silent lump on the bench, Justice Thomas.
Now it's time for the rule of the frat boys. God help America.
18
The dudgeon is cover. She's over the moon, still, that the Clintons got their comeuppance. Read between the lines: The glee is all there.
2
Bottom Line: Can Supreme Court afford another Clarence Thomas? In 2016 he broke his 10-year streak of withholding questions at oral arguments. Clarence Thomas also has the distinction of delivering a pro-gun rant days after the Parkland shooting so he can speak up for good causes(cough). Yeah-let's throw caution to the wind, just like the Presidency--two down, one to go.........
13
Part of the tension of predisappointment here is in knowing that one of the worst Supreme Court justices ever, Clarence Thomas , will be followed up with another terrible choice.
It’s like watching a slow motion traffic accident reoccur.
85
Of course, it's just a momentary snapshot, but look at the expression on the face of the judge's wife in this photo while everyone else is looking quite jovial.
13
Anybody who is skeptical is not considering facts. Isn’t it possible that everyone here is telling the truth? This woman was groped and assaulted. Judge “frat boy” doesn’t remember it because he was falling down drunk. The drinking culture of his alma mater is well-documented. Should he go to jail? Obviously not. Does he belong on the Supreme Court? Clearly, he does not. It’s really that simple folks. The problem is politics.
33
Thanks for your voice Maureen. We must push back against this grab ‘em culture; then, now & future.
20
How come not one of the Democratic senators or Congressmen, also accused of sexual harassment were mentioned in this editorial. Is it possible the writer is prejudiced against the Republicans?
17
@Marika
None of the other sexual harassers of the GOP were mentioned, either, so yes it is fair. No one else was mentioned because no one else in Congress was involved in this particular incident.
3
We are focussed only on the following: Life-time appointment. Congress, like water, will find its own level.
2
@Marika
How come? Perhaps because, just as calling someone names is not the same as punching them in the face, attempted rape is not just another form of sexual harassment And the writer is not prejudiced against Republicans, just rapists.
1
Here is some deductive reasoning by an armchair-detective.
Ford cannot remember the date or place of the alleged attempted rape but can remember that she was 15 and wearing a bathing suit and that it was in MD.
She is now 50, so it must have been summer of 1983. To be party, it was probably a Friday or Saturday. What was the weather like the weekends in June-August 1983? How many of the classmates (a) lived in MD? (b) had pools in the backyards? (c) had parents that would allow unsupervised parties? Let's go through the yearbook and start jarring classmates memories. I doubt it will take 24 hours.
When she left the bathroom, where did she go? Who took her home? I believe that she is telling the truth, which means I believe that Kavanaugh is lying now and that he tried to brutally rape her then. However, I think physical and time coordinates have to be put on this story for it to have its due traction. If the Republicans succeed in ramming him through (an unfortunate but accurate metaphor), their victory will be Pyrrhic. Kavanaugh will be duly impeached come the blue wave.
47
It’s pretty obvious the professor believes what she is claiming is the truth. And it’s also pretty obvious the judge and his allies don’t want to know or reveal the truth.
But what’s fascinating to me is how Maureen was able to get a snarky comment about one of the Clintons into this piece.
Yes, the more society changes, our esteemed Senate stays the same. Maureen too.
11
I watched the movie “Confirmation” about Anita Hill vs Thomas again tonight. I watched the hearings live as well in ‘91. I was outraged then by the bad treatment of Professor Hil. I believed her. I was annoyed that Biden didn’t fight for Angela Wright to be heard, because of his own embarrassment about the perceived “ spectacle “. But as I watched the film tonight in the shadow of Dr Blasely’s accusations, I was doubly shocked by that Senate’s handling of the matter. Additionally, ( after watching “ Chappaquidic this year)) why was Ted Kennedy on that committee ? Dowd predicts it’ll be as bad next week . I hope not
93
Thanks to Maureen Dowd for putting this latest mysogenist fiasco in historical perspective. Yes, it’s nauseating. The most unfathomable part of it is that these men who perpetuate the oppression of women really do think of themselves as “good people”. Looking at you, Senator Hatch. You are — how can I put it? — mixed up.
130
The motto of Georgetown Prep, where Brett Kavanaugh (and Neil Gorsuch) prepped, is "Men for Others."
Based on the reports concerning Kavanaugh and his wingman, Mark Judge, the motto should be "Men Who Scare the Devil Out of Other People's Mothers."
30
Dr. Ford is telling the truth. Period.
104
Prove it --- even in the most vague of terms
Intellectual dishonesty is a very dangerous place to go -- just ask Lewinsky and Clinton -- oh, and Mrs Clinton who attacked the accusers -- all of them
3
@Bonnie, how can you be so sure?
1
Ms. Dowd ... your sober, reflective writing voice suits you well. I look forward to hearing it more frequently throughout these extraordinary times.
60
I would hope that if the Democrats ever regain power, they will seek revenge, not just move on.
48
My stomach has been churning since Trump became president. You knew exactly who and what you were getting with this man, it's his enablers and cronies that give me the biggest knot in my gut. To witness decency, morality, ethical standards fall away in the name of power and politics is sickening to me.
I dread next week's appearance by Dr. Blasey. While I admire her courage, she will be discredited, maligned and humiliated by the same old boys club who will essentially go with, “what's the big deal?” scenario coupled with the all too familiar “boys will be boys” argument.
Watching Mitch McConnell state emphatically they Brett Kavanaugh will be siitting on the Supreme Court proves to me that Dr. Blasey's testimony means nothing to them, nor does the trauma she says she experienced as a teenager. But, perhaps her doing this, (even knowing it will not likely change anything) she will further inspire women to take a stand against these old, white men who hold so much power.
Just vote in November to shift things in the right direction, my stomach needs you to do this!
155
@Holly
It is always "boys will be boys" with the GOP as long as the male in question is white. When the male in question is a person of color, the tune changes to "lock 'em up forever". It is entirely situational.
6
Ironic that the person who wanted to make the "anonymous report" is the one who is getting got smeared....
14
...and yet, there is NOTHING in Clarence Thomas' record of decisions on the bench to indicate that he is either unfit to sit on the court, or that some odd sexual predilection drives his decisions.
In the end -from the standpoint of a determination of fitness - Anita Hill's testimony, means absolutely nothing.
8
Anita Hill means nothing. That doesn't sound objective to me.
2
@Objectivist
Despite what you (and supporters of our President) think, character matters.
1
Truly a great column that needs to be read by millions of Americans. This is a big test of the #metoo movement but also a test of the US senate. If the Senate is not equal to this slap in the face of all those once abused by powerful and privileged men then we will have failed the test
84
@bruce egert
Yep --- let us all assume guilt and let us all set the stage for any pubic person (either side) to be taken down by any high school classmate at any time at all --- minors ---
1
Yes we still seem to be trapped in the same place. But. There are two constitutional remedy's to bad judges.
Impeachment.
Add two new seats to the court.
Impeachment is hard because it takes 67 votes to convict. And remember that the charges or articles of impeachment are political. Not criminal. So the same rules for a court of law do not apply.
A new Congress can add two new seats at will by a majority vote. No filibuster as the majority party will make an exception to that on this occasion.
Either way the question is can we get a Democrat Congress leading to a Democrat in the White House in 2020. Doable. But you can not be complacent. You have to vote. Don't think for a heart beat the others will take care of this for you. Not. You have to take personal responsibility as a sovereign citizen to see to it that the conservatives get the old Heave Ho. Forever.
We can do this but you have to make it happen. Call Senators & Congress people; even if you are not their direct constituent. Email, text, go to protests. Talk to your friends and family. Make it your personal mission to make sure at least Five New People Register to vote and make sure they do.
Conservatives are bad. We need to shed ourselves of them. We can do it but it's up to you. Resist.
38
Wonderful column, Ms. Dowd. Hatch is 84 and senile and he has the audacity to suggest Ms. Ford is mixed up. I think now, the Democrats are a little less cowardly and, I believe, will behave as such.
16
I can't believe the pessimism, and certainly not as a motivational point. What could be more spectacularly advantageous, than that only the Republican caucus are deceived by their lockstep abandonment of Senatorial scruple? This admitted charade began as an unusually cynical elevation of a mediocre figure as a cog of the Right Wing's casuistry machine, in the tradition of Thomas and Alito, whose primary claim to fame is his insistence on interrogating a President about his ejaculations. But now, with the great gift of his flat denial of being a liar and an erstwhile failed rapist, it's about the Senate's changing hands, and the marginalization of the Court as incontrovertibly illegitimately constituted. If that's mud, at least its fertile.
19
After Dr. Blasey's now expected testimony next week before the Judiciary Committee, composed of minority Democrats, both men and women, and the majority anachronistic Republican lineup of all white men, we can fully expect that Kavanaugh's nomination will surge ahead to a full Senate vote, even if she "hits it out of the park" in her Congressional appearance. Hopefully, she will be able to summon that courage and fortitude already displayed to take her pursuit for accountability and justice one step further, filing a criminal complaint against Kavanaugh's attempted rape in the State of Maryland. Arbitrarily denied an F.B.I. investigation of her ordeal by Grassley & Co. forces in Washington, let state prosecutors mount an inquiry into this matter and follow the evidence wherever it may lead. Justice delayed, justice denied.
18
Very dear Ms Dowd:
Again, and Again, Well earned for what ever prize is granted to Writers. Excellent quality . The enjoyment provided, is unpayable. Best regards. aev
4
Just like the title of Chris Hedges' new book states - America is in it Farewell Tour. Granted, there are still a few $$ that the rich haven't gotten their hands on yet and there are some progressive advances still to be knocked down, but give the GOP time and they will get there.
Time to ring the Game Over bell, America - some would say it was a good run. Many would not.
54
Here's a sequel to the saga that's even more sickening. There's crazy and then there's really crazy. Or else extreme wifely loyalty, or something.
In 2010, Clarence Thomas's wife Virginia phoned Anita Hill, and left this message:
“Good morning Anita Hill, it’s Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love for you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.”
(she says with my husband, not to him?)
Anyway, that was 19 years after the Thomas/Hill hearings. Anita Hill reported it to police.
I wish good luck to Dr. Ford and husband and kids. The political culture is more hate-filled now, social media amplifies it, and people will go to extremes to defend Trump and his courtiers--whoever they are, no matter what.
919
@Meredith I remember that. I suspected then that Ginni had drunk-dialed Professor Hill. Who has, to this day, never backed off on her allegations. We have had, for more than 25 years, a workplace harasser on SCOTUS, thanks to the GOP's vigorous assassination of Anita Hill's character.
6
@Meredith. And I have aways thought it interesting that the women who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassing behavior were all black. And his wife, Ginni, who loves to make obnoxious phone calls? White as I am.
6
@Meredith thank you for reminding us of this! I had forgotten.
2
That the so-called Republicans are neither interested in truth or justice is old news now. The silence of the GOP and congress while Trump continuously prevaricates and rails at essential democratic institutions speaks volumes. This episode is only the latest piece of the Trump puzzle to be slotted into place. Once that puzzle is finished, America as a democratic nation will be all but nostalgia. The only real question here is what are the 'cowardly' democrats going to do about it?
4
It is unnerving to think how far women have come, only to find ourselves dragged back to the same place.
And sobering to think how cutting Hillary a little slack for not measuring up to some ideal that somehow only applied to her could have made all the difference.
11
Ms. Dowd, I am not sick to my stomach but you did bring tears to my eyes with these words: "It is unnerving to think how far women have come, only to find ourselves dragged back to the same place."
Now I sit here reminded of Anita Hill's suffering at the hands of some of the same men still in office that Dr. Blasey will now face and while I want to be hopeful I am too cynical to think she will make a difference on the hearing. According to today’s news she will be heard on Thursday and then dismissed and Kavanaugh will be voted in by a party run by old white men who still don't understand or refuse to understand sexual assault and harassment. A party that voted in as their president and leader a misogynist of their own and let’s not forget with the help of 53% of the white women’s vote. We, and I suspect Dr. Blasey in particular, can only hope that this whole process will give rise to young women, young women already inspired by the #metoo movement, demanding and making change by voting and running for public office. Young women who won’t give up because clearly in 27 years we may have come far, but not far enough, because if we had, we would not be dragged back to the same place by some of the same men.
5
I have read that President Trump and the Republican-dominated Senate have blocked an FBI investigation into the specifics of Ms. Ford's allegation against Mr. Kavanaugh. I do not know if that is true.
If it is true, however, wouldn't Ms. Ford have an option of filing a sexual assault charge with Maryland police, forcing them to investigate? If this were an option, it would seem to remove the blocking power of President Trump and the Senate Republicans.
It would have another advantage: The drama of watching a Supreme Court justice hauled before a criminal jury in suburban Maryland would be about as nuclear as it gets. I could see comic brooks and operas as well as movies and a spate of biographies requiring a whole new wing in the Museum of Americana.
3
If Kavanaugh makes it to The Supreme Court, all 3 branches of government will be shams. What does that tell us about what we will put up with?
10
The Thomas hearings boiled down to degrees -- watched the entire hearing as well. Most of my legal friends believed Hill to be sincere .. she felt Thomas spoke in ways not fitting a future SC Judge. Remember she stated that Thomas never threatened her or touched her .. it was speech we are taking about. Others used the the word "hostel" ... I actually heard someone say he was a "sexual predator" the other day. They clearly did not watch the hearing ... actually -- they were too young.
He repeatedly asked her out ...
The problem for Hill was that she followed him to another job -- a better job. This fact confused the committee and many in the public -- it was her major undoing.
The Thomas hearings did change workplace behavior -- in fact, it changed many company policies.
At the time, many men simply did not feel this type of speech was unusual .... or that it could be viewed incorrectly.
Remember it took until 1995 for the senate to expel Bob Packwood (he resigned) ...... and then there was Bill Clinton. Like it or not ... The DEM's defended him and lost all credibility .. including this paper and many of it's opinion writers. ML was vilified .. the DEM's don't have any high ground here .
3
The Republicans obviously believe that Brett Kavanaugh likely committed the assault so they must do everything to keep the truth from being confirmed. They do an even greater disservice to the man’s career, his family, his judicial history and his life.
He should decline the nomination and hope he can still keep his current job, his law license, his wife and custody of his children. If I lived in his neighborhood I would not let him coach my girls.
11
Professor Blasey is of course telling the truth. Sadly, Kavanaugh will likely be approved for the Supreme Court. America is in a bad way at the moment.
6
Anita Hill today still stands as an icon with integrity and clarity of purpose, continuing to teach. I can't imagine going through that hearing, dwarfed by cameras and old white men, trying to catch her out. She never lost her composure. Clarence Thomas, meanwhile, has sat on the nation's highest court, saying nothing, becoming filler for the Republican party.
Dr. Blasey has a support system and will hopefully maintain her composure. Doing the right thing is rarely easy but for her and her family, it's mountainous. Mr. Kavanaugh may still be confirmed but he will never live this down.
4
Unfortunately it appears we haven't made much progress since the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas debacle. Ms. Hill was treated in an horrible and disrespectful way. Ms. Ford's treatment is likely to somewhat less overtly sexist, but nos less disrespectful. You only have to examine the comments of the old men on the panel to determine that. Women who have been assaulted or molested remember. What men seem not to understand is that what to them may seem inconsequential, was very consequential to the victim. Personally I'm sick and tired of men who think they can dominate a woman's body. Whether by physical assault or the assault on a woman's right to determine how she manages her health, men still appear to feel we do not have the basic rights self determination. This is shocking and disheartening. It shows we haven't made much progress since the trials of Ms. Hill.
9
Maureen,
Often love your writing. Check your own paper tonight on Leland Keyser, a friend of Dr. Ford’s, issuing a statement that she does not remember ever being at that or any party where Mr. Kavanaugh was present...that makes three individuals. Diane Feinstein prior to being made to reverse herself said that Dr. Ford’s recollection might not be totally the truth ( she has since been made to recant...lol). If anymore come forward with similar assertions, are we to believe this one person or multiple persons which latter group includes one woman so far. At what point do we doubt this person...not on the crime...but on the culprit identity? People who dated Kavanaugh have also supported him.
4
Of course Ford wanted to report to be annonymous. There is no proof to her allegations. No police report. No physical evidence. Judge and Ford's other "witness" have no memory of it. Ford does no even know WHERE or WHEN it happened. Or how she got home.
2
Not a word about how a female Democratic Senator withheld this letter from the public till the last minute to use it for maximum strategic "vicious partisan" political advantage? If it had been released earlier it would have done for Kavanaugh for sure, but then it would not have served to delay the vote past the midterms.
6
I have been asked questions in various hearings. I never had to go to the WH to "practice" my answers for two weeks.
48
Why the Kavanaugh look-alike Whelan tried to pin this on hasn't filed a defamation of character suit against him is beyond me.
6
It's horrendous. The only good news is that after the Anita Hill hearing, a wave of women were ushered into Congress. Apparently not enough women or we would not be here in this predicament today. They called that election "The Year of the Women." I think this election is going to usher in a greater number of women and it's going to keep growing until there is equity in our gov't and respect for women. I am tired of seeing women treated like dogs and 2nd class citizens. Enough is enough. Women, unite and take the House and the Senate and please teach these men some manners and respect. I am going to volunteer to help get the woman running for House seat in my district elected. I want my daughter to grow up in a country where women are equal to men, not 2nd class citizens at their mercy.
11
Yes, you are right to mention how the Democrats rolled over for the Thomas nomination. My memory of that debacle was that Hill got thrown under the bus because Thomas trumped everything by claiming racism. It was a different time. But Hill is not forgotten, and the disgracing haughty silence of Thomas in his 25 years on the Court is now well known. If there is any justice, Hill’s suffering will now be revenged.
3
Perhaps a book will appear one of these days with the title, "What
They Said, What They Did," with an accounting of what every republican politician and high office holder did through comment or silence to help enable the crimes of Donald Trump, et al. Future generations deserve to know.
4
I was a young woman during the Anita Hill hearings, and I still remember her dignity, eloquence and righteousness. It was obvious she was telling the truth. I also remember all those middle aged/old white men sitting in judgment. It’s depressing to think we are still governed by a patriarchy in this day and age. Maureen, thank you for this column. One of your best. I believe Anita Hill. I believe Dr. Ford. And I am sick to my stomach.
22
Without the enabling silence of the 6 female Republican senators, these men could likely not get away with this travesty. It's never just men who are the problem, but the women who aid and abet their predatory and mysogynistic behavior in government, business, education, the church, and in the homes. By their denial and silence, and even active support for hypocrisy, women play their part in perpetrating injustice.
8
There is an enormous difference between the Thomas nomination and the Kavanaugh one, and we need to face it straight on, though it is very ugly.
Clarence Thomas was GHWB's replacement for Thurgood Marshall, and that's one of the sickest jokes of all time.
Thomas was a complex man, who has now reduced himself to a caricature. But the fact that Thomas was the most right-wing black guy Bush could find for what was basically a "reserved-for-black" seat made everything much worse when it blew up, with Anita Hill's accusations.
Now here's the bad news about Kavanaugh -- Trump had his choice of a great many conservative judges who would favor getting rid of Roe v. Wade, favor expansive gun rights. Why chose Kavanaugh?
Kavanaugh is the Trump bird-of-a-feather: out-of-control entitled young white man, assaulter ... and critically the one with the most expansive views of presidential prerogatives and immunities.
Anita Hill's accusations truly blind-sided GHWB and the Republicans -- Thomas wasn't chosen because he had any reputation for what blew up on them that they knew about.
But Kavanaugh's juvenile history was known to the Republicans. You cannot avoid Matt Judge and "Wasted" and "Bart O'Kavanaugh." Trump was warned that Kavanaugh had "issues and vulnerabilities" that might prevent confirmation.
That wasn't a bug to Trump ... those issues were a feature.
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@Lee Harrison
I was in Italy when the Thomas-Hill charade was playing out. The newspapers in Italy didn't pay as much attention to the sexual harassment charges as to how a man so obviously unqualified for the Supreme Court could have been nominated in the first place.
1
Yes, it's a Republican attempt to take 'boys will be boys' to the limit; into the future & beyond, we might say.
That, along with the expansive Presidential Powers theme. Not only are Broad Powers simply unconstitutional on nearly all but the far right's reading, but it is as ill timed as 'dead guy' jokes at an unexpected funeral. We all share concern over the expanded Presidency in whose office essentially makes war with or without the Congress, Constitution be damned; rules by executive order & is encouraged to do so by Congress; and half a dozen other extensions and work-arounds due to a Congress in serious need of grist for the mill in the form of fiber! Mixed metaphor be damned.
I sometimes refer to the present administration as a Regent Administration; perhaps I've been prescient in addition to being pointed: will we soon mint a Royal Presidency? Sans the title of course.
I don't know a single woman who hasn't, at some point in her dating life, had to fight off a man who 'went too far'. For most of us, the incident was a close call, and maybe a learning experience.
I know I learned early to not be alone with a drunk.
So, are we now to blame a fifteen year old girl for not figuring this out sooner?
Are we to give Kavanaugh a pass because 'nothing happened'?
Probably.
Now we have to learn early to not be alone with a politician.
22
Two women, separated by 27 years, both witnesses to sexual harassment by men racing for a seat on the Supreme Court Bench. Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford. Today, we await the Senate hearings of the accuser of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation the G.O.P. will "plow" through the Senate (Mitch McConnell) till he is confirmed. We witnessed Anita Hill testifying 27 years ago this month and cringed and wept when Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court (despite Ms. Hill's testimony in front of her 80 year old parents). Justice Clarence Thomas has remained largely mute on the Supreme Court for past 27 years. We are feeling the same corrosive feelings as we await president Trump's conservative Scotus pick -- an alleged violent sexual harasser -- being plowed onto the Supreme Bench. Anita Hill advised recently that the Kavanaugh/Ford hearings should not be rushed. That human lives are at stake, and that Republican Senators, as they didn't in 1991, "still just don't get it"! (i.e. male legislators' responses to sexual violence). It is 2018 now, well past time for all senators to "get it". God bless law Professor Anita Hill. May Prof. Christine Blasey Ford be as brave and courageous in her testimony next week.
13
This seems to me to be phony; not your article, Madam, but this not necessarily a belated attempt at whatever--(character assassination?). The real issue is not some reputed jejeune sexual encounter while under the influence of alcohol in high school. It might make for nice copy; but it demonstrates the elusiveness of trying to challenge "Executive Privilege", in order to obtain information regarding Judge Kavanaugh's proclivities regarding the separation of powers, among other things, such as fairness and reason. This elusiveness stands as juxtaposition to the pompous call for an investigation of a reputed high-school party almost thirty years ago. Twenty-five Yaleies wrote a letter to "The Times" imploring the Judge to make his records as regards his service to the executive branch during the G.W.Bush administration public. Of course, the President didn't go to Yale. He might as well have gone to Georgetown Prep, or some such place. That administration certainly does need some scrutiny; and it might be that Judge Kavanaugh's role in it could shed some much needed light on a number of critical topics regarding the power of the executive branch. The time element seems to diminish the relevance and veracity of the claim, since no F.B.I. investigation of such an event is either worth the money, or has a possibility of success. The opposite, excluding the F.B.I., might possess both qualities, and could be badly needed. The Republicans likely possess neither fairness nor reason.
2
Here is the problem. Her charges can't be proved by fact or by law. What then is the point?
This is worse than McCarthyism. Democrats are demanding the accused prove he didn't commit a crime, as opposed to asking the accuser to prove a crime actually occurred. What's next, will the Democrats ask to admit spectral evidence or demand trial by ordeal?
4
I have been an avid fan of Ms. Dowd for many years; but of all of those columns, this one is the most searing that I can remember: “The merciless pummeling of a woman who draw to obstruct the glide path of a conservative Supreme Court Justice.”
Please tell me when the party I once voted for (admittly many years ago) become the uber-hypocrites of today? Who run their campaigns promises to help the middle class workers, while passing tax cuts which increase benefits for the wealthy and the major corporations which will, in turn, add millions to the deficit, and then having bowed to their corporate donor/masters, announced the end to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.
3
As fraught and significant as the assault charges are, I am in shocked dismay that the already provable instances of Kavanaugh lying under oath are Not already leading to his disqualification. Something is seriously not right here. And I mean something bigger than Dr. Blassey's allegations. This is Kabuki theater of the lowest order.
9
Welcome back Maureen!
Mid 80's while working for Pacific NW Bell in Portland, Oregon I was selected to attend the 3 day management assessment program designed and executed by AT&T. I was delighted when my boss notified me I had passed the assessment, the recommendation was "ready to promote now". Unfortunately , he held my future in his hands, my promotion would only come to fruition were I to sleep with him. This I refused to do and left the company shortly thereafter.
One small example, but so grossly unfair.
Sick to my stomach, yes.... ready to fight absolutely!
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Me. Dowd:
How can you believe the allegations given that there is no independent evidence to support them? I get the funny feeling that the left doesn't really care about evidence. How is judge kavanaugh supposed to defend himself against allegations that can't be proved or disproved?
8
@James
Perhaps it escaped your notice that the accuser is the one asking for an investigation by the FBI, while the nominee and his supporters are trying to avoid it.
4
@Brad Blumenstock
She was demanding that the that the FBI investigate before she speak. Judge Kanvanaugh has been investigated by the FBI before for both his judicial appointments. If she wants to be heard so badly then why all the delay tactics? Nothing the FBI could possibly find after 20 plus years would change her testimony.
Good column Ms. Dowd. As I have said before, if Mr. Kavenaugh had any integrity he would have withdrawn from his nomination. But no, he and his bumbling cohorts snake their way to control the once Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas showed them the way. And if there is one thing the GOP knows how to do is keep to the plan while giving more power and control to the man who is destroying them. Correction the man who has finished destroying them.
4
Ms. Dowd rights movingly of the "merciless pummeling of a woman" but it rings hollow for me. She has been relentlessly obsessive in her critiques of Hillary Clinton over the years. I have found her observations on Secretary Clinton unbalanced, if not needlessly vicious, and, if you will approaching "merciless pummeling." The result of the 2016 election was indeed assisted by a culture where it is so easy to negate and deride a women's accomplishments & ambitions.
The Senate, and its Judiciary Committee seems to have learned nothing from the Anita Hill experience - no process review or soul searching - their handling of the current situation is clumsy and antediluvian. Dr. Ford is indeed brave to face this committee, and lodge her complaint. The "win at all costs" GOP approach is damaging the Senate immeasurably - from the treatment of the Merrick Garland nomination to the rushed, sloppy Kavanaugh hearings - it will take years to repair the process of nominating SCOTUS appointees.
28
Not long after the 2016 election, the Times ran an article about women who voted for Trump and their reasons for doing so. It would be very interesting to speak to the same women again.
9
This hearing was a charade from the start. No one doubted that Kavanaugh would join the other 4 conservatives on the bench to kill Roe by a thousand cuts, protect Republicans on gerrymandering, and make it more difficult for all Americans to vote. They will cancel affirmative action and gut Obamacare. They will not only overturn Roe but make it impossible for poor women to have access to birth control. We all knew all of that. The thing we were most concerned about was Kavanaugh's policy positions that a sitting president couldn't be subpoenaed or even investigated. What we have learned is that Kavanaugh is not an impartial jurist but a political operative. Why else would the octogenarian, Grassley refuse to make thousand's of documents public? I once wondered how Grassley could look at himself in a mirror but it's obvious that a man that ugly in facial features and in the shallowness of character avoids looking glasses.
12
I wouldn't be so sure history is going to be repeated. In contrast to Bret Stephens ridiculous 'this I believe...' opinion piece, this isn't as simple as a she said-he said affair. Blasey is a highly credible individual who documented through therapy that she had been attacked and she also took a polygraph test. Moreover, it isn't at all clear what she has to gain by coming forward, but it is quite clear what she has to lose. By contrast, it is quite clear what Kavanaugh has to gain by lying and what he has to lose by telling the truth. Finally, it just isn't believable that Blasey would mistake Kavanaugh for someone else. I don't think Kavanaugh will survive, and if he does, Republicans won't. I think this time will be different.
31
Not this time, Maureen. The public will NOT stand for this again. When our representatives fail to represent our interest in a democracy, we can vote them out and revolt if necessary. This administration being the most corrupt in history is doomed to fail and all the Republicans who aided and abetted this president in giving the 1% their tax cut and deregulating polluters and banks who have oppressed us before, stolen our healthcare and betrayed our trust in rebuilding infrastructure, will be ousted too. We will not be held hostage to those who treat most of us, like our civil rights have no meaning, while lining their own pockets with donations from Russian oligarchs and our hard earned tax money. We will NOT tolerate children being ripped from parents at the border, no gun control so schools are now killing fields, and our neighbors being stolen by ICE. Women will NOT go back to being used and abused with no recourse by white privileged men who think they are entitled to whatever they can get whenever and that includes our 'so-called' president. Justice will be served. The day of reckoning is coming. We want our country back that we have sacrificed much for and the freedoms and rights inherent in our Constitution. This is a government of the people, by the people, for the people, not of the rich, by corporate donors, for the 1%.
5
Truth to Power, Ms. Dowd. I only hope that the echoes of your comments reach some deaf partisan ears. If not , perhaps those voices will reverberate on the feet of those leaving Congress after the midterms.
4
I came home from the Michael Moore film to read this scary piece. It is so painfully obvious that the entire system is running on fumes at best. The greed of power and money (obviously connected) has consumed us. The media, the politicians, the judges, and yes people like me who don't do enough to change it. I need to change that. I give money to the people I perceive as being for the greater good but I need to do more.
23