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| Blumenthal |
When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, an unwilling witness, was
persuaded to come out of the closet and give public testimony concerning her
allegations that then Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh had molested
her decades earlier, U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal was among the first out of
the gate to credit what turned out to be a poorly supported allegation.
The authors of a 2019 book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An
Investigation”, noted that a high school friend of Ford’s who, Ford testified,
was at the party where the alleged assault took place initially stated that,
while she did not recall the evening in question, she never-the-less believed
Ford’s claim of sexual assault by Kavanaugh. The author’s interview of the
testifier revealed that her friend, a Democrat who was not in the same room
during the alleged assault, had felt pressured to corroborate Ford's account.
Ford herself was pressured to make an appearance before the investigation
committee.
From the very beginning of the Kavanaugh rough-up, Blumenthal strongly asserted he believed Ford’s allegation. Elle magazine caught Blumenthal in full stride: “He [Blumenthal] said, ‘Thank you for being here today and just tell you (sic) I have found your testimony powerful, incredible – Blumenthal perhaps meant to say “credible” -- and I believe you. You’re a teacher, correct? Well, you have given America an amazing teaching moment, and you may have other moments in the classroom, but you have inspired and you have enlightened America. You have inspired and given courage to women to come forward as they have done to every one of our offices and many other public places. You have inspired and you have enlightened men in America to listen respectfully to women survivors and men who have survived sexual attacks. And that is a profound public service, regardless of what happens with this nomination. And so the teachers of America, people of America, should be really proud of what you have done.’"
One can only hope that Blumenthal was relying upon the evidence
supporting the claims made by Ford and not Ford’s gender as the spur to his
ardent belief. Competent lawyers believe or do not believe in testable claims,
not persons; if the bulk of evidence supports the claim, it becomes possible for
others to believe it. Certitude arising from claims is conditioned on evidence-backed
propositions, not gender. Had someone argued at the time that one should believe
Kavanaugh’s protestations of innocence because he was a judge whose rulings had
inspired a corresponding courage in other judges, Blumenthal would rightly have
raised the roof.
The central operational pillar of the #MeToo movement is this:
that in any claim of molestation or rape made by a woman against a man, the
claim, as yet untested, should be given serious consideration and, if found to
be true, one must justly credit the claim. Recently we have seen this pillar of
moral rectitude brought down upon the shoulders of Democrat financier and
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, among others. And we should all be proud of
the courageous women who hauled Weinstein into court, where he was judged guilty
by a jury of his peers. That judgment, rendered by a jury that carefully
considered the evidence presented at trial, vindicated the claims made by some
of his accusers Naturally, appeals will follow until Weinstein’s coffers run
dry.
The Kavanagh accusations – which filled the media 24/7 for weeks – rested on slender evidence, and some of the accusations were hilariously fictitious. The accusation brought by former Biden aide Tara Reade against her former boss is not insubstantial. “It happened all at once, Reade recounted in an interview with Kaite Halper “The gym bag, I don’t know where it went. I handed it to him. It was gone and then his hands were on me and underneath my clothes. And then he went down my skirt, but then up inside it, and he penetrated me with his fingers. And he was kissing me at the same time, and he was saying something to me.” Biden has denied the incident occurred, but not quite as often or intently as Kavanaugh – because Biden has not been equally hounded by congress or the media.
Does his mean that the #MeToo movement has moved on?
When Alyssa Milano, an entertainer who vehemently and often had asserted
Ford’s believability, said that Biden should be entitled to a presumption of
innocence daily denied to Kavanaugh, she was mauled by Rose McGowan, who co-starred with
her in the series “Charmed.” Men, Milano said, deserve due process. “You are a
fraud,” McGowan protested. “This is about holding the media accountable. You go
after Trump & Kavanaugh saying Believe Victims, you are a lie (sic). You
have always been a lie. The corrupt DNC is in on the smear job of Tara Reade,
so are you. SHAME.”
Milano and McGowan both have a point. Men or women charged with a
crime deserve due process. Neither Ford nor Reade formally reported to the police the men accused. But before due process can occur, the media lays out
the case. And the case against Biden so far has received little attention, some
of it turned accusingly on Biden’s accuser.
Reade noted in her interview:
“I contacted TimesUp, which is an organization for women that helps them get
resources if you apply for legal resources and to help you…they took my case
and after they took my case, they contacted lawyers to see if there were
conflicts [of interest]. Some replied and then when they heard about the full
thing, the full account, they were worried about it… One of them was going to
take it, but then two of his partners in another state were working in the
Virginia Biden campaign. [He said] if Biden’s…gonna drop out after Virginia, I
can represent you… Well then he never did because Biden didn’t drop out, right?
Then TimesUp got ahold of me [and said] that their lawyers told them their
501(c)(3) [status] would be at risk because it’s a presidential campaign and
it’s too political and Biden was a candidate. And so they said, we can help
you, but not with resources.”
Reade’s interviewer is a proud and articulate leftist -- very
courageous, considering everyone on the left, including socialist Bernie
Sanders, who recently endorsed Biden, is now being folded into the Biden camp.
The tragic takeaway from the interview is that no one on the left could
do anything to help Reade -- including people who wanted to help her. Even now Reade
stands alone, but there is something heroic in her anguished solitude.
The Reade interview is, at a
minimum, as convincing as Ford’s testimony, which occasioned such extravagant
praise of the accuser from Blumenthal. Given the role played by Blumenthal in
the Kavanaugh hearing, that of a bear baiter, one wonders when, if at all,
Blumenthal will endorse Biden for president some time before the Coronavirus
postponed Democrat National Nominating Convention meets in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.
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