Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee would be damned if they asked questions, and they are being damned now for not asking questions. As clever as it is duplicitous, Democrats have forced a lose-lose scenario on the GOP ahead of the Brett Kavanaugh-Christine Blasey Ford hearing.
When Ford agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about allegations that Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her, the Left cried foul. Politicos and journalists and politicians all made different versions of the same complaint. The eleven Republicans who would be doing the questioning were A: old, B: white, and C: male.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., predicted that “hostile GOP men” would attack Ford.
Why did Dr. Ford just agree to testify even though 1) #GOP Senate Leader doesn’t care what she would say, 2) She will get more death threats, and 3) She will be subject to questioning by hostile GOP men about her traumatic & humiliating sexual assault?
Because her story is true. https://t.co/snwm6i25Pp
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 22, 2018
Alexander Nazaryan, a national correspondent with Yahoo News, wondered just “how hard 11 men will work to discredit a single woman.”
The Associated Press reported that the questioning placed “the Republican Party’s woman problem is in the spotlight.”
Some Republicans are warning that their party’s strained relationship with women could suffer permanent damage if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed. https://t.co/ldf5SlpWrR
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) September 27, 2018
By all accounts, it seemed that Republicans listened. They decided to turn over the questioning to a female lawyer experienced in dealing with such cases. They called on Rachel Mitchell, a sex crimes prosecutor from Maricopa County attorney’s office in Arizona.
The casual political observer would assume that this would satisfy the Left. After all, Mitchell knows infinitely more about the issue, and how to approach the issue with empathy, than any of the eleven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The casual political observer would be wrong.
But Senate Democrats immediately panned the decision, and one can only suspect it is because they want to use Republicans’ performance in asking questions to suggest that they are somehow insensitive.
Mazie Hirono on CNN this morning: “Republicans do not want to question Dr. Ford directly because it will reveal who they are and I think they’re afraid of that.”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 25, 2018
Republicans have hired an outside attorney to grill Dr. Ford, they’ve scheduled a vote on Judge Kavanaugh for Friday AM (the day after this hearing), and they’re limiting questions to 1 round of 5 min Qs
Does that sound like they’re taking this seriously to you?
Me neither.
— Senator Chris Coons (@ChrisCoons) September 25, 2018
Republicans apparently decided it’s bad optics for 11 male senators—many of whom already judged Dr. Ford a liar—to question a survivor on live TV. Instead of personally facing her to ask questions, they are hiding behind a private lawyer whom they hired to do their jobs for them. https://t.co/EsIGF6umOD
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) September 21, 2018
Press and pundits followed up, suddenly incensed that Republicans had listened to their earlier complaints.
Symone Sanders, former spokesman for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, called them cowards.
The Republicans of the Senate Judiciary Committee are a bunch of internet bullies. They are cowards. It’s preposterous that they have to bring in outside counsel to ask Dr. Ford questions tomorrow. DR FORD IS NOT ON TRIAL!…
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) September 26, 2018
Lara Bazelon, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, taunted Grassley and called on him to “man up” and “question Blasey Ford yourself.”
Handing off the questioning of Dr. Ford to female staff members would be based on the risible idea that the questioning of sexual assault survivors is “women’s work.” https://t.co/dr1q05HO2F
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) September 25, 2018
By now it should be clear that there is nothing that Republicans can do to satisfy the complaints and answer the criticisms of the Left. Whatver the truth value of Ford’s allegations, this criticism reveals bad faith.
