It’s instructive to see how different people are responding to the allegation of attempted rape that has been leveled against Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. Yesterday, Nancy noted that the spectacle was providing a reminder to women that Republicans do not have a high opinion of them. Today, Anita Hill reminds us in an opinion piece in the New York Times to call the accuser by her name:
Finally, refer to Christine Blasey Ford by her name. She was once anonymous, but no longer is. Dr. Blasey is not simply “Judge Kavanaugh’s accuser.” Dr. Blasey is a human being with a life of her own. She deserves the respect of being addressed and treated as a whole person.
What Christine Blasey Ford is now being asked to do is to discuss an experience she had with Brett Kavanaugh that she found humiliating, terrifying and traumatic. She is being asked to discuss this in a Senate hearing with hostile and skeptical questioners while a global audience serves as the judge. It’s fair to say that discussing an attempted rape on those terms is guaranteed to elicit all those strong, negative emotions again. But sensitivity isn’t Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley’s strong suit. So, what he’s doing now is engaging in bullying someone who says she has been a victim of sexual assault:
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) said that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has agreed to participate in Monday’s committee hearing but that his staff has not heard from Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused the judge of sexual assault while they were in high school, the Washington Post reports.
Said Grassley: “It kind of raises the question do they want to come to the public hearing or not. We still haven’t heard from Dr. Ford, so do they want to have the hearing or not?”
Grassley suggested the hearing could be called off if Ford declines to appear.
Chuck Grassley doesn’t want a fair process or even a responsible one. He’s under pressure to deal with Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations quickly, without taking the necessary time needed to actually investigate her credibility or the credibility of Judge Kavanaugh.
Sen. Grassley hasn’t changed much in the twenty-seven years since the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas. He was serving on the Judiciary Committee back then, too, and back then he was more impressed by how Thomas responded to the charges of Anita Hill than by the disgusting and degrading behavior she described: “He was miraculous in how he handled it. He handled it in a way that looked responsible…I hope he stays on there till he’s 95 years old.”
He’d like to create a process so egregiously unfair that Christine Blasey Ford won’t agree to participate, which is basically what the problem here is all about: powerful boys/men who want to force women to participate against their will. Grassley still “just doesn’t get it” when it comes to victims of sexual harassment and assault, and he probably doesn’t understand how his behavior here parallels Kavanaugh’s alleged behavior in that bedroom thirty-six years ago.
Her name is Christine Blasey Ford and she’s a “professor at Palo Alto University who teaches in a consortium with Stanford University, training graduate students in clinical psychology. Her work has been widely published in academic journals.”
She has something important to say about the fifty-three year old man who might serve on the Supreme Court until he’s ninety-five years old. She doesn’t need to be coerced into doing something she’s not prepared to do. If she’s telling the truth, she had enough of that as a fifteen year old girl.
I find it astonishing that the Judicial Committee of the US Senate, especially after the Anita Hill debacle of 27 years ago, is not just willing but determined to set aside the basic structure of our judicial system that plays out in investigations and trials daily where people are interviewed, stories verified or debunked and reports are made to prosecuting attorneys that can then be used in a trial. That the WH is pretty much the only source that can call for an FBI investigation and seems unwilling to do so pretty much guarantees we’ll have a repeat disaster that we witnessed with Anita Hill.
On parade for the women in America and the men who love them will be living proof of just how little respect Rep politicians have for women. No amount of chatter about how grand the economy is will overpower the message of this disaster they’re about to bring on themselves. This will make the ‘year of the woman’ response from Anita Hill’s treatment be more like a ‘generation of the woman’.
And if Mark Judge’s background and relationship to Kavanaugh isn’t given full exposure at the hearings we all lose. https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/09/17/brett-kavanaugh-s-character-witness-mark-judge-ha
s-extremely-disturbing-views-about-women-and-black/221339
. . . politicians have for women.”
Friendly amendment:
As for bringing on “the generation of the woman” . . . bring it! The interminable stack of generations of male dominance haven’t done so hot. Really hard to imagine the wimmenz could manage to fuck things up any worse than my gender consistently has.
*although I really want a better English substitute for the French mépris, which google translate renders as “contempt”, “scorn”, “disdain”, etc., though none of those seems to quite capture the same flavor for me.
That Grassley doesn’t ask for an FBI investigation and report into the Groper Kavanaugh incident pretty much tells you all you need to know. More “getting to the bottom of it!”, ha-ha. Are the Dems demanding that an FBI or committee investigation be undertaken?
If American women need yet more reminders that the white male “conservative” movement (and its wholly-owned Repub party) “do not have a high opinion of them”, I give up. Of course, Repub women do not have too much of an opinion of themselves anyway….simply to be a member of the party is to delight in second class citizenship!
Grassley’s adoring description of Uncle Clarence’s testimony in refutation of Anita Hill sure doesn’t jibe with my recollection. I remember an inexperienced, wholly unqualified young judge, a Repub-manufactured Black “conservative”, almost apoplectic with indignation, anger and rage, spluttering about the “public lynching” that was occurring to him—classic “conservative” counter-appropriation and misuse of terminology for racial crimes that reactionary whites had long approved of. The mortification Clarence endured by having his personal actions/obsessions described nationwide embittered him so severely that he clearly dedicated his life to ruling against every “lib’rul” argument/position that would ever come before him as payback, and resolving to die in office. So Grassley is almost certain to get his wish of 95….
As for the Groper, he is already a practiced and assured liar before the hapless and corrupt Judiciary Committee, so of course it’s nothing for him to volunteer to spew out a few dozen more. If all he has to do is lie a bit more to get his chance to destroy the nation, he is delighted to do so, and our “conservative” Repubs (led by the dimwitted Grassley) are happy to set up the stage and rearrange the props for the national charade.
With GOP actions and recent history as a guide, here’s what will happen: Ford will be disrespected and and trashed, Kavanaugh will be confirmed, Trump will make sure the message to women is doubled down via subsequent gloat-tweets, and GOP women, led by the likes of “moderates” Collins and Murkowski will go bubble-headedly along for the ride.
I’m not sure. The Wizard of Oz weather vane seems to be turning.
Don’t mean to be so cynical as I sound, but how many times have we heard that? I hope you’re right and I’m wrong, but we’ll see.
. . . (Fuck you, NYT. Swore long ago you’d never see a dime outa me, and that still goes. Though if anyone with access felt inclined to somehow just accidentally c&p it here, well . . .)
Hill’s quoted point is critical. Diminishing/dehumanizing Ford is almost certainly a conscious element of the Banana Republicans’ tactics.
Your point is critical, too. Grassley trying to bully Ford into appearing despite him suppressing/excluding evidence (i.e., Judge testimony) that would almost certainly be significantly corroborative of her testimony in important ways; which simultaneously exposes this all as a travesty being rushed to a pre-ordained outcome — i.e., sham political kabuki — is utterly shameful and reprehensible.
Still, I hope she’ll do it anyway, and if she does, make the points above the centerpiece of her testimony, even before specifically recounting her ordeal. Grassley might well try to cut her off from making those points (“Please directly answer direct questions, Dr. Ford, and refrain from this political advocacy” or some such bullshit), which would have the effect of doubling the outrage of all decent people everywhere. So let him try.
OTOH, no one (decent) could (validly) blame her for opting not to participate in such a sham proceeding, given Grassley’s indefensible terms.
#1 – The GOP doesn’t need Kavanaugh. For 30 years they’ve been pruning the party of any dissent, and installing right-wing hacks who hate Roe v. Wade.
At this point ANY Republican appointed judge they nominate would over-turn Roe v. Wade.
#2 – Trump could shut down all the hysteria and gain a huge advantage by simply withdrawing the nomination and appointing #2 on his list. But, he won’t because he’s Trump. And the Senate won’t force him to do it, because they’re GOP too, with all that implies.
#3 – This is a giant slap in the face to women just weeks before the most important mid-term elections in 50 years.
#4 – They will ram Kavanaugh through, no matter how it looks or how unpopular it is, because they are Republicans, so of course they will.
#5 – Kavanaugh will provide the 5th vote to overturn Roe, which will be portrayed forever among women as “they tapped a known rapist to overturn Roe. Again.”
This will not go down well at all. But, this moment was inevitable once they elected Trump.
The hubris and stupidity of the GOP is just amazing. And their downfall is equally going to be epic. It’s just going to take a lot more work than they hoped before we can drag the bastards kicking and screaming off stage and dump them into the waste bin of history.
Yup. And it’s going to take decades to clean up the shitshow.
See, Chuck, the thing is, women are the majority in every state, every district, every precinct, every city block. They’re also slightly less shortsighted when it comes to taking the time to register and vote. Bullying women is like bullying a lioness. You can make it work for a while with psychology and bravura, but it’s ultimately an impotent threat. If the lion unilaterally decides she’s had enough, she can tear you limb from limb before you can squeak out a scream.
Women have had the hammer, i.e., the vote, for a century now, and they’re taking their frikkin sweet time to decide they’ve had enough, but if they ever do, hell hath no fury …
. . . and a chair, and a whip.
. . . chair and whip notwithstanding! She knows they’re just props.