Now we know why Trump won't release Kavanaugh's White House record. Trump tried to shorten the paper trail. There are just too many deep secrets. What the American people know about Kavanaugh is far less than what they do know about him.
Another man knows him. Like so many others, Mr. Wittes is sad to bring adverse opinion against a man they basically like. All these people coming forward never expected to be put in this uncomfortable place where they have to inform the public and the US Senate not to place Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.
I think Dr. Ford saw this potential a decade ago, but, never formulated a method to do so. Who would?
October 2, 2018
By Benjamin Wittes
...Despite all of that, (click here) if I were a senator, I would vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. I would do it both because of Ford’s testimony and because of Kavanaugh’s. For reasons I will describe, I find her account more believable than his. I would also do it because whatever the truth of what happened in the summer of 1982, Thursday’s hearing left Kavanaugh nonviable as a justice....
...I cannot condone the partisanship—which was raw, undisguised, naked, and conspiratorial—from someone who asks for public faith as a dispassionate and impartial judicial actor. His performance was wholly inconsistent with the conduct we should expect from a member of the judiciary....
...He went on: “This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.”...
To be honest, I knew about the fact Kavanaugh wrote up the impeachment of Bill Clinton while working with Ken Starr, but, it never entered my mind when I listened to him speak. Furthest thing from my mind. Never saw revenge as a reason to take up any opinion against him. I think Brett Kavanaugh has a lot of problems, including carrying a paranoia about his assistance to a failed impeachment of a president.
...The Brett Kavanaugh who showed up to Thursday’s hearing is a man I have never met, whom I have never even caught a glimpse of in 20 years of knowing the person who showed up to the first hearing. I dealt with Kavanaugh during the Starr investigation, which I covered for the Washington Post editorial page and about which I wrote a book. I dealt with him when he was in the White House counsel’s office and working on judicial nominations and post–September 11 legal matters. Since his confirmation to the D.C. Circuit, he has been a significant voice on a raft of issues I work on. In all of our interactions, he has been a consummate professional. The allegations against him shocked me very deeply, but not quite so deeply as did his presentation. It was not just an angry and aggressive version of the person I have known. It seemed like a different person altogether....
Kavanaugh has already crossed the threshold of his own inhibitions. He doesn't have the temperament to be an Associate Judge on the Supreme Court.
Mr. Wittes goes on to make a rather interesting assessment of the testimony of Dr. Ford and Brett Kavanaugh. He finds there is no real equipose to the testimonies and Dr. Ford more credible, regardless of any holes in the event timeline. I also didn't know the skis on Kavanaugh's calendar was "Brewskis." Again, nothing I was looking for. I was interested in the people on the calendar because they were nearly the same as those reported in Dr. Ford's recollection.
I have a great deal of empathy for alcoholics. There are very difficult hurdles for them, but, to have such a dependency as this at such an early age is incredibly sad. Oh, well.
