When electing government officials or appointing Supreme Court justices, it’s always a pleasure to have common interests. Clinton got jazzy with his saxophone solos, the notorious RBG (Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) is a major gym rat, and Obama sang Marvin Gaye at press conferences, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh enjoys the finer things, the beer necessities, if you must.
If my allusions to the nominee’s support of this cereal-grain based alcohol are not sparking any fuses, please let me elaborate.
Last Thursday, on September 27, 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing during which Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavaunaugh was asked to testify in response to several allegations against him made by two different woman, alleging that during his time in high school, he committed actions of sexual misconduct.
One of the women, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, also testified in the Senate Judiciary Committee. While Dr. Ford was forced to relive the trauma of the alleged event that has haunted her and followed her for the last 30 years, Kavanaugh’s mind was elsewhere.
During Thursday’s committee hearing, Kavanaugh used the word “beer” almost 30 times in his testimony. I will digress and say that the Supreme Court nominee assured the committee that he did, in fact, have other interests in high school. He spoke on his adoration of “lifting weights, playing basketball, or hanging out with friends” on multiple occasions. After sensing that the committee understood he was a real renaissance man, he went on to disclose that, “Yes, we drank beer. My friends and I, the boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer.” I think Anheuser-Busch has found its new spokesperson.
I can see it now, a herd of beautiful brown Clydesdale horses galloping across the plains of Montana, the sun at high noon. A sultry cover of John Denver’s “Country Roads, Take Me Home” is playing, and we see a man in the distance sitting on a rocking chair on his porch, chocolate Labrador Retriever on his right side. He pulls a tall, cold one out of the cooler on his left and we get a close up of his face, Kavanuagh’s face. “My friends and I, boys and girls, drink beer. I like beer, still like beer. We drink beer.”
Fade out…black.
All kidding aside, Kavanaugh’s public adoration on beer during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where he is being accused of sexual assault is problematic.
Brett Kavanaugh denies any/all allegations of sexual misconduct made against him, claiming that “he never did anything remotely resembling what Dr. Ford describes.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is out, we do not know if he is lying or telling the truth.
If we take into consideration his intense, seemingly forced, emotional reactions to the questions of the committee, one could argue that he truly believes he is isn’t, or something which is drastically worse, he truly does not remember.
Kavanaugh began his testimony with an immediate negation of all allegations made against him…
“Less than two weeks ago, Dr. Ford publicly accused me of committing wrongdoing at an event more than 36 years ago when we were both in high school. I denied the allegation immediately, categorically and unequivocally….This is a circus. The consequences will extend long past my nomination. This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country”
Many, many moments later, Kavanaugh beings to sob and drink very large amounts of water, as if he had drunk nothing but beer for the past 35 years and forgot what water tastes like.
“I never sexually assaulted anyone! Not in high school, not in college, not ever!”
And then it happened…he disclosed to the committee that “sometimes I had too many beers.”
Following discovery of this information, Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell asked Kavanaugh what he considered to be too many beers. His snarky response was to be expected and had something to do with his cluelessness and insistence that she check a “BAC (blood alcohol content) chart or something.”
Deflecting the sarcasm, Mitchell pressed on. “Have you ever passed out from drinking?”
Kavanaugh hesitated and responded, “I — passed out would be — no, but I’ve gone to sleep, but — I’ve never blacked out.
This friends, is where my concern lies. While I believe Dr. Ford’s testimony, as well as any survivor who comes forth and speaks on being sexually assaulted, I see where Brett Kavanaugh is struggling. He does not remember. Be it because of the cursed, wonderful beer that he fell pray to in his high school years, or the fact that those years are 36 trips around the sun behind him. It doesn’t matter, if he believes he is telling the truth, it is because the memory is nowhere to be found.
As for his love of beer, it may very well be that his rhetoric surrounding the beverage was crafted to depict him as a blameless, “average Joe,” just trying to enjoy beer with his friends. How could he sexually assault someone? He just wanted to drink beer.
He didn’t know any better, and if he did, he doesn’t remember.
