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On Brett Kavanaugh

Ruth Marcus has an issue when narrating her Brett Kavanaugh book: She doesn't really have access to Brett Kavanaugh.

And--even if she had that access--Brett Kavanaugh is maybe a cipher. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. Someone with major ambition. Someone skilled at buddying up with powerful older men. Someone whose political beliefs seem to change shape and meld with the beliefs of the powerful person he is attached to, at any given time.

For this reason, Christine Blasey Ford becomes the star of Marcus's book. Ford actually is extraordinary, and has achieved something extraordinary.

The governing metaphor of the Ford chapters has to do with surfing. Ford--a surfer--hates the thought of paddling in, refusing to go after the wave. As she hesitated to testify, she worried about being seen as the type of person who caves, who paddles in. (To which I say: Wow. I'm nervous about a mildly awkward conversation about my professional plans for next year. Ford chose a path that very easily could have led to someone killing her.)

What I find especially moving about Ford is that she really poked a hole in an ugly patch, a patch in our culture. There is a sense of "boys will be boys," a little boundary-crossing is OK, our main priority is to make young men feel comfortable with themselves. Ford said, via subtext: "When you sexually assault someone, you scar that person for life." Because Ford pulled herself together, and reassembled her own life, she had the power to articulate precisely what Kavanaugh had done to her.

Ruth Marcus claims to like Kavanaugh--hmmmmm.....--but she also says that Ford's testimony was clearly truthful, and that Kavanaugh disgraced himself by performing so childishly in his own testimony. Marcus says Kavanaugh kicked himself off the Court. (In an ideal world, that happened.) Marcus also says that the idea of a presumption of innocence doesn't apply to a Supreme Court appointment; those hearings are not a trial. (She goes on to say the opposite tactic--portraying the hearing as "just another job interview"--is also more-than-a-little disingenuous.)

Marcus writes well, and, having lived in D.C. for years, she knows quite a bit about how power works. What happened with Ford was sordid and embarrassing for our country--but at least there is a record of what happened. At least interested people will not have to forget. Writing down the facts: This counts for something. The facts don't ever--fully--go away.
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