- The Washington Times - Friday, October 5, 2018

A new essay from the New Yorker asserts that Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s defense against claims of attempted rape were a form of “weaponized crying” by a man of “white male privilege.”

Lawmakers defeated a Democrat-led filibuster Friday to move President Trump’s top pick for the Supreme close one step closer to confirmation, but a contributor to the New Yorker says “#MaleTears” may have sealed his fate.

College professor Christine Blasey Ford claims — without corroborating witnesses or evidence — that Judge Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at an unspecified place in the summer of 1982.

The magazine became part of the controversy by publishing uncorroborated claims by Deborah Ramirez that Judge Kavanaugh exposed himself at a party in college.

“Kavanaugh’s performance last Thursday [before the Senate Judiciary Committee] … combined the postwar attitude that men should be in touch with their feelings, to the point that they may cry, with the intrinsic American ideal of white male privilege,” contributor Michael Lista wrote Thursday. “Because Kavanaugh is accused of sexual assault, and may be denied the career elevation that he has long plotted, he blubbered like a newborn. … Kavanaugh was producing the sort of mythic substance that you’d collect in a cup decalled with #MaleTears.”

The author noted that unlike Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ “high-tech lynching” retort during his nomination involving Anita Hill’s claims, Judge Kavanaugh has “no avenue of appeal.”

“And so he’s seemingly weaponized crying, the way a little boy does when he’s in trouble,” she wrote.

Ms. Lista then noted tears displayed by former President Obama and former House Speaker John Boehner, but assigned them purer motivations.

“Boehner and Obama’s tears bear little resemblance to Kavanaugh’s, which are entirely in self-pity and self-interest,” she wrote.

A full Senate vote on the judge’s nomination is scheduled for Saturday.

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.

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