Brett Kavanaugh disrespected Christine Blasey Ford and American principles

I started by wanting to write a column on President Donald Trump’s grotesque United Nations speech. I wanted to comment on the empty bombast, the continued trashing of allies and the bizarre infatuation with Kim Jong Un and other strongmen.

I had begun composing a column about the wonderful Charlie Chaplin soliloquy in his film “The Great Dictator,” a searing parody of Hitler. Chaplin plays a Jewish barber who looks like the Hitler-like dictator, escapes from a concentration camp and through a series of bizarre mishaps is mistaken for the dictator on the eve of a huge, triumphal rally. Instead of the snarling, blood-and-soil speech the adoring audience expects, Chaplin delivers cinema’s most breathtaking speech in defense of humanism and decency.

I had planned to write about what a 2018 version of Chaplin’s speech would sound like – how a Trump lookalike would have talked at the U.N. about welcoming refugees, feeding the poor, reducing nuclear stockpiles, tackling climate change, defending the free press and so on.

As I said, that was the column I wanted to write. And then the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh happened.

Here was a woman reluctantly agreeing to publicly testify about trauma, to bare her soul before strangers. And here was about a man at the pinnacle of his career being asked questions about events from his teenage years that, if accurate, would disqualify him from the U.S. Supreme Court.

I don’t pretend to know whose “100 percent” certain statement was true. And I certainly don’t believe that an accusation alone constitutes proof of guilt; innocent until proven guilty is a non-negotiable principle. I do know, however, that when a serious allegation is made about a person on the cusp of being confirmed to a lifetime appointment, then regardless of that person’s politics, academic credentials and all the rest of it, the allegations needs to be properly investigated – even if that means slowing down the Senate process by a few days.

And I know that what unfolded in that hearing room wasn’t remotely fair or respectful – not to Ford and not to the 325 million people who live in America.

When Kavanaugh started shouting himself red in the face saying he was innocent, saying the proceedings were a politically motivated farce, saying he worked his tail off to get where he was and how could the Senate possibly doubt his bona fides, that wasn’t respectful. Innocence has nothing to do with the decibel level of denial.

And when one male Republican senator after another complained how Kavanaugh, a brilliant legal mind, was being railroaded, that wasn’t respectful either. When they asked him if he had done the things Ford said he did, and he said no, and they gleefully accepted his answer at face value, that wasn’t respectful of the political process, and it sure wasn’t respectful of how the criminal justice system is supposed to work. If it were emblematic, then anyone charged with a serious crime could establish their innocence by simply shouting loudly that they didn’t do it.

Imagine if a young black man bellowed like Kavanaugh did. Far from his accusers backing off and essentially saying his anger showed authenticity and thus innocence, that black man would have secured himself a ticket to prison. After the protests at the Democratic National Convention in 1968, several organizers were tried on conspiracy charges. When Black Panther leader Bobby Seale shouted in anger in court, the judge ordered that he be bound, gagged and tied to his chair.

Imagine if a woman hollered as did Kavanaugh. She would be derided for being shrill. Remember what happened to Serena Williams at the U.S. Open.

Yet, until Sen. Jeff Flake forced a follow-up FBI investigation into Ford’s allegations, Kavanaugh’s performance won nothing but accolades from GOP leaders.

What we saw in that hearing room was powerful men reflectively rallying around to protect one of their own. We saw, too, a political calculus that the prize of confirming a highly conservative Supreme Court justice was worth pretty much any moral price. It was a ghastly sight, one that will long be seared into the American collective consciousness.

That the process was belatedly rescued by Flake in no way mitigates the awfulness of the behavior of the other ten GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee. What a message to send to the world: If you are powerful and entitled, just shout loud enough and you will seem genuine. Show enough contempt for due process and you will be rewarded for standing firm. Harangue lawmakers and you will be fawned over and your nomination fast-tracked.

It was a truly Trumpian moment.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 1:00 PM.