Yes, they won this battle, “Republican chauvinists versus the women of America” by using their power and control to stifle the FBI’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation. The FBI was prevented from investigating all aspects of Dr. Ford’s allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the exercise was a complete failure.
The fact is that Republicans have won most of the battles against the women of America. But we have now arrived at the point where they have gone too far and women are going to fight back with all their might. They are going to use the massive power of their votes to offset the political power of the GOP, something they should have done in past years; but it’s never too late to rectify a deplorable situation.
One thing that could not have been more clear in the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings is that political chauvinism is alive and well as it was practiced in the recent hearing by 11 angry old men, in particular, Republican Senators Charles Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and the highly irritating Lindsey Graham.
Doctor Ford, Kavanaugh’s accuser, poured her heart out when describing what this individual had done to her years ago. She told this group of senators how Kavanaugh had attacked her and the agony she has endured since then.
She did this at the risk of great harm to herself and her family but did so because she felt that a highly faulted person should not be elevated to the Supreme Court.
She might just as well have saved her breath because these Republican dinosaurs were determined to dismiss everything that she said. Right from the start, it was obvious that they fully intended to ignore her accusations in order to get Kavanaugh confirmed.
The Republican message to the women of America is just this: “nothing is going to change and you better resign yourself to this fact of life. We are going to continue to protect the men of America in these matters of sexual abuse. It’s time you accepted your place in this society.”
As we know the preponderance of chauvinists in America are men but there are also females who “believe that one gender is superior to the other.” So maybe we should refer to Sen. Susan Collins as a female chauvinist.
I watched her eagerly expected statement on the Friday before the actual confirmation vote. As I thought, Collins warmly extolled the virtues and supposed great accomplishments of Kavanaugh including all the wonderful things he has said and done relative to women in this country. I thought I was going to gag the way she described what she saw in him; a modern-day version of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
However, she somehow left out how evasive and obviously untruthful Kavanaugh had been in answering Democrat’s questions and how very angry and insulting he was when he returned to the committee after Doctor Ford had provided her testimony.
She and Sen. Flake, who both voted yes to confirm him, should both hang their heads in shame because of their very apparent dismissal of Ford’s testimony.
Flake who sometimes likes to play the role of Trump’s conscience took a new stance this time and decided that he just didn’t want to go against the party line, and so he caved in.
Flake should, after his upcoming retirement from the Senate, go to Hollywood where he can continue his acting career. He did a brilliant acting job when near the end of the final Senate Judiciary hearing he suddenly left the room with his Democratic friend, Senator Coon. He gave the impression that he was in great agony over what he should do. He had this highly pained look on his face.
Sens. Murkowski and Heitkamp should be commended for having the courage of their convictions and voting no. Heitkamp, who is down by about 12% to her opponent in the North Dakota senatorial race may have doomed her own chances by taking her strong stand against him. But, then again, it’s possible that her courage could rally a great many women in that state to stand with her.
Democrats, who already were working hard on campaign strategy for the November elections will now be able to further mobilize and energize women voters to turn out in massive numbers to pay back these GOP chauvinists for their shameful behavior.
Now that the highly faulted Kavanaugh has been confirmed Republicans will bask in glory for a week or two but there will be hell to pay in November when they will be the accused and the women of this country will be the accusers.
I fully understand the long-established principle of law which states that an individual is innocent unless proven guilty. However why this investigation stinks to such a degree is that, quite obviously, the FBI was prevented from doing a comprehensive one. It should have had Ford, Kavanaugh, and Mark Judge take polygraph tests which are a normal part of their procedures but that was not done.
The FBI should have interviewed quite a few other witnesses but it did not because it was told it could not. Is there any doubt that Trump and/or the Senate leadership put the muzzle on the FBI in order to cover up the truth?
Let’s look at another side of this issue. A candidate for this high office should be of sound mind, have control of his or her emotions, and exhibit a high degree of independence, not embracing any political ideology, just the interpretation of the law.
When he gave his extremely angry and emotional presentation to the committee that should have convinced senators to reject his confirmation. Republicans did no such thing and had no problem with his out of control political tirade.
How could Collins vote yes on this confirmation when she could see Doctor Ford’s great distress? Well, it’s because her loyalty to her party was more important than standing up for a woman who was attacked, more than likely by Kavanaugh.
Collins the Republican senator from the blue state of Maine has almost certainly initiated the beginning of the end of her career in Congress. The people of Maine, especially its women, after watching her cave in to party pressure, are already gearing up to drive her out of the Senate. In just 23 hours, some 30,000 of them contributed $1 million to her opponent in the 2020 election. Bye, bye, Susan!
Doctor Ford is a highly respected member of the academic profession with impeccable credentials. She came across as very sincere and credible, but that didn’t matter in the least to Collins and her fellow Republicans who were determined to confirm their “man” and disregard this “woman’s” strong contentions.
The Supreme Court is thought of as a sacred institution and it now will be stained by two justices who have been suspected of sexual abuse.
The FBI also caved in, becoming submissive and subservient to the dictates of this president. I’ll be waiting for one or more of its agents or supervisors to leak to the press exactly who stifled the investigation and what means were used. Trump has been waiting for an opportunity to exert his control over this important agency and this was it.
These Republicans are very, very clever. They somehow managed to transform Doctor Ford from being the accuser into being the accused. And Kavanaugh, from being the accused to some kind of victim or even martyr. The bad news is that women’s rights in America were dealt a powerful, debilitating blow by these chauvinists of the highest order. But the good news is that women are going to make them pay a terrible price for their treachery in the very near future.
So Kavanaugh is now a Supreme Court Justice. But we must remember the sage words of Yogi Berra, the baseball legend; “it ain’t over till it’s over.” Kavanaugh is going to be living under a dark cloud for a very long time. And you can bet that numerous news organizations are going to continue digging and digging to find out what really happened years ago.
They will use huge resources to do conduct thorough investigations with no set time limits. All of the parties that could contribute to unearthing meaningful evidence will get their chance this time. There will be discovery instead of a coverup and there is a good chance that one day we could very well be watching the impeachment of a Supreme Court Justice take place.
COMMENTS