This headline and subhead to Brett Kavanaugh’s op-ed appeared in the Wall Street Journal on the eve of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to move his U.S. Supreme Court nomination to a Senate confirmation vote. They say much about the man:
“I am an Independent, Impartial Judge: Yes, I was emotional last Thursday. I hope everyone can understand I was there as a son, husband and dad.”
Yet, he wasn’t there in those roles nor in his role as nominee. He was there as victim of a process that in his view was out to get him.
He honed this point in this paragraph about his partial, anger-filled testimony that followed that of the woman who accused him of sexual assault when they were teenagers, Christine Blasey Ford:
“I was very emotional last Thursday, more so than I have ever been. I might have been too emotional at times. I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said. I hope everyone can understand that I was there as a son, husband and dad. I testified with five people foremost in my mind: my mom, my dad, my wife, and most of all my daughters.”
During his testimony, Kavanaugh lashed out at the process, made baseless accusations against Democrats as to the reason Ford stepped forward with her story, and dismissed the confirmation process as essentially broken:
“This is a circus. The consequences will extend long past my nomination. The consequences will be with us for decades. This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions, from serving our country.”
He’s right, the consequences will be with us, and not just for decades.
They will be with us because the process worked, despite Kavanuagh’s emotional ouburst or Sen. Lindsey Graham’s rant in which he joined the nominee in blaming Democrats – “You’re looking for a fair process?” Graham said to Kavanaugh. “You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend.”
The process was fair, as fair as it has always been and always will be in the politically charged environment under which it’s conducted. Plenty of “good people” from all political persuasions have not been dissuaded in the past, and they won’t in the future.
It’s not the process that’s broken, it’s the people in the process that are broken. Kavanaugh is a flawed nominee. As his outburst revealed, he’s not the best person to sit on the nation’s highest court. While partisans are fine with justices who evaluate the law solely through their particular partisan prism, most Americans are not.
The process, as difficult and perhaps distasteful as it may seem, revealed Kavanaugh as someone who is neither an independent nor impartial jurist, regardless of his insistence. Through his emotional testimony, and at times inappropriate behavior toward the senators, this 53-year-old man showed he could not handle a job interview for a lifetime appointment.
More importantly, the hearing process revealed a person born, raised and living in the ranks of privilege – white man privilege – where boys are not questioned about their actions nor required as men to accept responsibility for their actions, past or present. Instead, they are encouraged to pursue their dreams; dreams that lead some of them to position of power in this country.
The process also revealed Kavanaugh’s lack of maturity as well as his abiding sense of privilege.
His emotional outburst sounded not like a man defending his good name and his family, but like a man angry that he would have to submit to questions about past behaviors that he didn’t think relevant. He should have known as someone who has long been immersed in Washington politics that it didn’t matter what he thought was relevant, what mattered was what the senators, who represent the voters, thought was relevant. This alone raises questions about his jurisprudence.
If Kavanaugh was honest with himself – and he demonstrates that he lacks that capacity – he would have readied himself for the accusations levied against him and prepared an appropriate response that could have shown his empathy, his temperament and his humanity. We all makes mistakes, at any age.
Instead, he wanted everyone to focus on his performance on the appellate bench, but the hearing process is not just to determine a nominee’s ability to write a legal opinion – computer programs can do that, if we let them – but also the humanity that goes into the thinking and analysis when deciding how to rule on an issue that affects people.
Christine Blasey Ford sounded more than just believable, she sounded credible because she came forward out of her “civic duty.” Kavanaugh could not understand her humanity or the desire of at least half the committee to understand his humanity. Instead, he became “emotional” because something he felt was owed him seemed to be slipping away.
The American people don’t want a self-centered justice to get a lifetime appointment on the court; they want someone with experience, maturity and humanity.
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