Kavanaugh hearing: Hypocrisy on both sides
By Rick Jensen
Hurricane Florence tearing up the south Atlantic coast is nothing compared to the hypocrisies tearing up our country over Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation that Brett Kavanaugh tried to pull off her clothes at an alcohol-fueled house party when they were teenage minors.
Democrats have decided that Kavanaugh is presumed guilty before being proven innocent, and are behaving in such a way that defines the Democratic Party as unforgiving to even the most decent adults for their behavior as a minor… unless he’s Cory Booker.
Meanwhile, conservative commentator Dennis Prager opines it is immoral to consider the Kavanaugh accusations because they are 36 years old, rationalizing that his mother and wife handled gropers by telling them to knock it off and let it go, and everyone else should handle it that way, too. This suggestion should be ignored.
And around we go.
Now, the New Yorker published an allegation that Kavanaugh dropped his pants at a drunken Yale dorm party which it cannot confirm and the New York Times refuses to publish as dozens of people they called could not corroborate the story, just as the accuser herself told friends she wasn’t sure it was Kavanaugh.
Really?
One way to clear this comes unwittingly from Sen. Booker of New Jersey, aka “Spartacus the Good Groper.”
The Washington Post recalls Booker once wrote a column describing his high school and college sexual life as not too dissimilar to the accusation against Kavanaugh. Booker is mocked by Kavanaugh supporters as “Spartacus had Roamin’ Hands.” while supporters at CNN say his experience is different because he changed his ways.
So what we do know is that Booker was a misogynist, a groper and a grabber. The girl said “no,” and he tried again. And again with more girls. Until he changed his ways.
Kavanaugh denies groping anyone in such a way.
A fair line of questioning paralleling Booker’s “changed ways” would be to ask Kavanaugh of his attitudes toward women in business, the legal profession and in romance.
Will this prove anything to the anti-Kavanaugh crowd?
Of course not. Logic left the nomination process as soon as Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein chose to publicize a vague accusation post-hearing and let reporters dig up the allegation and publicize it for her.
While it’s quite ignorant to suggest survivors of sexual abuse are not believable because they have been fearful for a myriad of reasons to immediately report it, honestly, haven’t you been waiting for some credible accusations to emerge?
Democratic supporter Harvey Weinstein he isn’t.
Hypocritically, influential conservative lawyer Edward Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and friend of Kavanaugh, tweeted cringe-worthy accusations based on Zillow, Google maps, and Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep’s yearbook to accuse another classmate of the groping.
Whelan was compelled to apologize.
But back to Democrats, who face another moral challenge in Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, who has been credibly accused of abusing his longtime girlfriend, Karen Monahan.
Monahan stunningly released her own medical document where a doctor wrote that Monahan “states that she was in a very stressful environment for years, emotional and physical abuse by a partner with whom she is now separated.”
“She identifies the individual she was involved with as Congressman Ellison, and she is worried about retribution if she identifies him publicly,” the document added.
Ellison denies the accusation, complaining it was written a year after they broke up.
Monahan accuses the Democratic Party of silence.
Maybe the Democrats would take it seriously if he were not Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee and the document came out in 36 years.
And so goes the hypocrisy on both sides.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
How to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or letter to the editor to The Independent
Do you have something to say? Want your voice to be heard by thousands of readers? Send The Independent your letter to the editor or guest opinion piece. All submissions will be considered for publication by our editorial staff. If your letter or editorial is accepted, it will run on suindependent.com, and we’ll promote it through all of our social media channels. We may even decide to include it in our monthly print edition. Just follow our simple submission guidelines and make your voice heard:
—Submissions should be between 300 and 1,500 words.
—Submissions must be sent to editor@infowest.com as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf file.
—The subject line of the email containing your submission should read “Letter to the editor.”
—Attach your name to both the email and the document file (we don’t run anonymous letters).
—If you have a photo or image you’d like us to use and it’s in .jpg format, at least 1200 X 754 pixels large, and your intellectual property (you own the copyright), feel free to attach it as well, though we reserve the right to choose a different image.
—If you are on Twitter and would like a shout-out when your piece or letter is published, include that in your correspondence and we’ll give you a mention at the time of publication.
