OPINION:
Democrats have scored a big one with their latest on Brett Kavanaugh, going all the way back to high school to give voice to a female who’s weighing in, mid-#MeToo movement time, no less, with some scathing accusations that the Supreme Court nominee, in his teen years, once pinned her to a bed at a party.
So now we’re going all the way back to a nominee’s high school days, are we?
It’s like this: If Democrats could forgive Ted Kennedy for Mary Jo Kopechne, then they can certainly give a pass to a teen-age Kavanaugh.
But readers can decide for themselves.
Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh’s accuser, wrote in a letter initially addressed in private to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein that Kavanaugh “physically and sexually assaulted me during high school in the early 1980s” along with one of his friends. How so? At a party at a Maryland home, Kavanaugh allegedly pushed her into a room, locked the door, and jumped on top of her.
“They both laughed as Kavanaugh tried to disrobe me in their highly inebriated state,” she wrote.
Ford ultimately fled the room.
“Both loudly stumbled down the stair well at which point other persons at the house were talking with them,” she wrote. “I exited … ran outside of the house and went home.”
She also told Feinstein she had “received medical treatment regarding the assault,” but did not specify further in the letter.
Now Sen. Jeff Flake wants more information, and said he’s not sure he can vote for Kavanaugh. Other Republicans want to hear more from Ford — though Sen. Lindsey Graham also added that he didn’t want to delay the nomination process to do so, The Hill reported. And of course, the Dems are having a field day, believing they’ve found their smoking gun.
“Christine Blasey Ford courageously stepped forward to tell her story — it is a credible and serious allegation,” Sen. Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter. “The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to scrutinze SCOTUS nominees. A vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination must be delayed until there is a thorough investigation.”
But here’s the thing: Let’s say Ford’s account is completely true.
What we have is a teenage guy who got drunk and tried to have sex with a girl. He was a cad — a dog.
Well, sorry to burst any bubbles — but that’s pretty much any teenage boy’s life, particularly in the decades since the 1960s, when permissiveness and casual hook-ups became a lifestyle.
Democrats may pretend otherwise; establishment and cowardly Republicans running from bad press may hop aboard that ghost train and try to feign moral outrage (while no doubt praying nobody peers too hard into their own teen pasts). But facts are facts, and the facts that face-slap go like this: Teenage boys, surprise, surprise, want sex and when they’re drunk at a party where there are girls and no chaperones, they’re prone to behave badly.
There’s not a mother of a daughter in America who doesn’t know this.
So let’s ease up on the persecution of Kavanaugh’s high school years. After all, it’s not as if he killed someone — or got drunk, drove his car off a bridge and left his passenger to drown.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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