[continued from previous thread]
21. Another quote from Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony: “That yearbook reference [to Renate Dolphin] was clumsily intended to show affection, and that she was one of us. But in this circus, the media’s interpreted the term as related to sex.”
21. Another quote from Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony: “That yearbook reference [to Renate Dolphin] was clumsily intended to show affection, and that she was one of us. But in this circus, the media’s interpreted the term as related to sex.”
22. Ms. Dolphin is a high-school contemporary of Judge Kavanaugh and his friends. Her name appears in his yearbook entry. He claims to be an “alumnius” of hers, and similar remarks from others appear more than a dozen times in his yearbook.
23. Judge Kavanaugh testified, “It was not related to sex.” Right. He and his friends were bragging about innocent dates, not sexual conquest. Among his boasts about Keg City Club and Beach Week Ralph Club, he takes a moment to register his chaste admiration for Ms. Dolphin.
24. You know who thinks it’s related to sex? Renate Dolphin herself, who initially signed on to a letter in support of Judge Kavanaugh and then withdrew her support when she learned what he’d written. “[T]he insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue,” she now says.
25. I hope, for her sake, that it’s untrue. But if you really think that the young Brett Kavanaugh meant it as anything but an insinuation that he had “graduated” to another level of sexual experience via Ms. Dolphin, well, I have a Supreme Court seat to sell you.
26. One last example, again from the yearbook: “Devil’s Triangle.” This was and is a common term for sex involving multiple men and one woman. (Check out the pre-Kavanaugh-era entry in the Urban Dictionary.)
[Here's the Urban Dictionary link: web.archive.org/web/2018091900….]
27. Given what Judge Kavanaugh has been accused of, one can understand why he would want to avoid any association between such an act and his high school years—even if (or maybe especially if) he’s innocent of Dr. Ford’s charges.
28. So what did he say when asked? That it was a drinking game.
29. Now, Judge Kavanaugh and I are about the same age. We both went to Yale. I lived in the DC area in the 1980s, and partied with private-school kids, albeit a few years after he did. I knew drinking games.
30. Devil’s Triangle? You, sir, are no drinking game.
31. But don’t take my word for it. Search the many, many websites that list hundreds of such games. (Make sure they were not edited by congressional staffers last Thursday.) See if you can find a single reference to back him up. Spoiler alert: you can’t.
32. There are more parts of Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony that are equally implausible, and as already mentioned there are good summaries available elsewhere (e.g., Washington Post, Slate).
33. And remember, if he’s lying about any one of those things, then he is a perjurer. He is putting his own personal ambition above his explicit promise, made under oath and before God, to tell the truth.
34. Other commentators, like Nathan Robinson at Current Affairs, have argued that if Judge Kavanaugh lied about those things, then he’s probably lying about Dr. Ford as well. If you lie about the little things, won’t you lie about the big things? Maybe.
35. But my point is that the little lies are themselves disqualifying. He had a choice: lie about things—things that may be no big deal—or tell the truth. To choose lies shows a lack of respect for the very judicial system in which he wants to play a leading role.
36. So, in short, to think that Judge Kavanaugh deserves to be on the Supreme Court, you have to believe either (1) that he didn’t lie under oath on Thursday, or (2) that it’s okay for him to have done so.
37. Believing (1) means you believe a series of facially laughable things about the English language, teenagers, slang, sex, bragging, and drinking. It’s just not remotely plausible.
38. Believing (2) means you think it’s okay for someone to undermine the judicial system in order to become—for the rest of his life—one of the nine most powerful people in that system.
39. Let’s be better than that. Maybe we can’t help but elect politicians who believe lying is a perfectly acceptable way to achieve their goals. But let’s hold our judges to a higher standard. Let’s value truth for its own sake.
[Fin.]
