Did he or didn’t he?
That question remains unanswered in the Brett Kavanaugh hearing into whether President Donald Trump’s choice for the United States Supreme Court should be approved by the Senate.
Judge Kavanaugh says no way, no how, it wasn’t me. His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, says with absolute conviction and 100 percent certainty that, indeed, it was Kavanaugh who pinned her down, groped her and tried to remove her clothes, all the while laughing about the attack with his friend, Mark Judge.
What’s an American to do? What will America do?
It is pretty clear what the U.S. Senate wants to do. Regardless of the machinations grinding through the Senate halls this weekend, a razor-thin majority has been frothing at the mouth to push this nomination through come hell or high water because most of the Republicans feel compelled to seat Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, regardless of the truth of the charges against him.
That brings another, more important question. Has a flake just saved the Supreme Court?
Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee was all set to send the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the full Senate with a “yes” recommendation. That was until Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona got himself trapped in an elevator with nowhere to run or hide from an extremely upset female sexual assault victim who demanded to know why he didn’t believe women and their stories of assault. The pain on his face was obvious, whether it was a result of the woman’s anguish or his own desire to extricate himself from an uncomfortable situation.
Then, Flake took the only sane approach — given all that the country heard Thursday — which was to force an FBI investigation for a week to try to determine what really did or did not happen.
Other senators joined in that approach and, finally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his colleagues relented. They got the president to call in the FBI.
I watched the hearings Thursday and listened to both Professor Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. I heard a most compelling indictment of Brett Kavanaugh by Professor Ford and I heard an emotional and compelling denial by the judge to any and all charges from his accuser.
In my opinion, the judge acted anything but judge-like in his condemnation of anything that moved on the Democrat side of the aisle, which has caused me to question whether he has the judicial temperament to sit in final judgment of others. But, that is another story.
The story that needs to be written is the one concerning the trust and confidence in the Supreme Court that the American people have going forward. As the third branch of government — and the only one that is supposed to be immune from the politics and emotions of the day — the high court must command the respect of all Americans. That trust could be found wanting if a person was elevated to the bench whose integrity was in question, especially if people believed he lied about sexual assault in order to advance a political ideology.
Anyone who thinks that the issue about whether Professor Ford’s accusations are true or not will go away if Judge Kavanaugh takes the oath of office to the Supreme Court soon is sadly mistaken. This is not the era of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. Too many people are fully engaged in learning the truth. And too many people, energized mostly by women who are fed up with a system that chooses not to believe their believable stories of sexual abuse and worse, are no longer going to just go back and sit down — or fail to stop an elevator and demand a sense of morality from a key senator — after what they believe they have learned about who may be the next Supreme Court justice.
For the next few decades, Kavanaugh could represent a failure of our political process to properly vet those accused of sexual assault. As he sits in judgment of women — whether justified or not — his votes, his opinions and his actions will always be suspect to people who believe what Professor Ford says he did and what, if true, he lied about.
Now, instead of completely whitewashing the hearing and ramrodding the vote through, the Republican-controlled Senate has decided to take a breath and ask the FBI to do its thing. All because Flake stood up when every other Republican was content to sit down and do nothing — except what he or she was told to do. But it wasn’t until Flake said “yes” to Kavanaugh but “no” to the rush to judgment did the Senate leadership relent.
An impartial FBI investigation — actually questioning witnesses and accusers — should go a long way to assure Professor Ford and other victims that they have been heard and taken seriously. After all, it is just a few more days to investigate against an appointment that will last a lifetime.
In the end, we may not know with certainty whether or not Judge Kavanaugh is the person Professor Ford claims he is or whether Kavanaugh is the choir boy he claims he is. But we will, at the very least, have some satisfaction in knowing that the FBI was given the opportunity to investigate the claims. That is what the bureau does better than any other.
I believe Professor Ford. Brett Kavanaugh says he believes her story. The only dispute is that he was her tormentor — a fact about which she is 100 percent certain.
So why is what Jeff Flake did so important to the Supreme Court? Besides undermining the integrity of the court’s opinions in the eyes of millions of Americans, there is an absolute certainty that at some point there will be a Democrat in the White House or a Democrat-controlled Senate. Is it hard to believe that a sitting justice of the Supreme Court named Kavanaugh wouldn’t be investigated for lying to the Senate during his confirmation hearings or, to put it differently, that female accusers of a Justice Kavanaugh won’t have their day of justice?
And what, then, will be the damage to this country and our Supreme Court when we start dragging that institution through the swamp so many call Washington?
No, it is a good thing for America and the Supreme Court that the Republicans — forced to act by Flake — have decided to take a breath and give the FBI a chance to find out the truth.
Whether it is a breath of fresh air remains to be seen.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.