The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
— William Faulkner
(I wrote the following before a third accuser came forward today.)
I’d just got back from a sales job upstate at a ski resort that doubles as a venue for dog shows. A pit bull had tried to bite me. My glasses fell into the little lake near the slopes and it took me a half-hour to fish them out. I was mad when I got home.
Swamp Rabbit was on the porch at my shack, watching breaking news on TV. Senate Republicans were hurrying to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a proud graduate of the spoiled rich boy’s club, before Democrats could push to investigate the allegation that he tried to rape a girl back in prep school.
“Did you see him on Fox News pretending he never ran with a gang of preppies, that he was never a drunk?” I said. “Did you see him sniveling? You were right, he’s a weasel.”
“He’s a weasel, but that don’t mean the attempted rape story is true,” Swamp Rabbit replied.”Them Dems can’t go around presuming he’s guilty if they ain’t got the dirt on him.”
No one’s calling Kavanaugh guilty, I told the rabbit. They’re just asking for a background check now that two women (so far) have accused him of sexual assault. They want to hear from his old buddy Mark Judge, the recovering alcoholic who wrote a book about the boozing and harassment of girls that went on when Judge and Kavanaugh were preppies together. And from his roomy at Yale who says Kavanaugh was a drunk and a braggart. And from the other women who say he was a dirtball back in the day.
“How many dudes you know were goody-goodies when they was young?” the rabbit countered. “I wasn’t into sex assault, but I was a drunk and I wasn’t nice to all the girls. I bet you were just as bad, Odd Man.”
“You’re still a drunk,” I reminded him. “The difference is you and I don’t pretend we were choir boys.”
I tried to explain. Kavanaugh could have admitted he was rowdy in his school days, that he drank too much and did stuff he now regrets. Instead, he told Fox News he never did the sort of things he’s been accused of, and treated women with “dignity and respect.” He’s stuck with the squeaky-clean persona constructed for him by Republicans. If he gets caught in a lie, the structure will collapse.
“By that time he’ll have a gig with the Supremes,” the rabbit said. “He won’t need no structure.”
The rabbit was right, of course. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, he gets a life-long appointment to the Court, which means he’ll have decades to take part in rulings that could screw up the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans.
“What a system,” I said. “What a world.”
“What a weasel,” the rabbit replied. “You got any whiskey around here?”
Odd Man Out 
His groping or lack of groping is of far less import than his judicial intentions. He and his arch-conservative court members can now invalidate environmental regulations, remove women’s right to abortion, permit gun nuts to walk around with concealed handguns, allow corporations to do whatever the hell they want with scant fear of government intrusion. And of course government at present has no intention of intruding. In a decade or so, at the present rate of under-funding, it will be so financially broke that it will unable to act regardless of intention. The rich and powerful want to starve government so they can do as they please, and they have convinced millions of us that it is to our benefit.
LikeLike
If the rape allegations did nothing else, they helped expose Kavanaugh as a liar and hypocrite who couldn’t even admit he drank heavily in his school years. And they provoked the temper tantrum that revealed his deep hatred of Democrats and his desire to get even with them. (“What goes around comes around,” he said.) A guy that obviously partisan shouldn’t even be a magistrate in Philly, let alone a Supreme Court judge. You’re right about the consequences of his confirmation. He’ll work hard to destroy what’s left of federal regulations, and he’ll almost surely play a big role after Mueller’s investigation is over and attempts are made to dethrone Trump. It looks like Watergate all over again, except the bad guys win this time. Depends on what Mueller comes up with and how hard the Democrats fight. Oh well…
LikeLike