A key aspect of the attempted rape allegation that Professor Blasey-Ford confronts us with is that both of her assailants were falling down drunk. Their level of drunkenness, in fact, is what she attributes her escape to.
Now let’s add to that these several other aspects of the story that have cropped up in the last couple days:
1) Kavanaugh’s buddy in the early ‘80s episode, the right wing writer Mark Judge, wrote a memoir in ‘97 describing his youth at Georgetown Prep which was characterized by blackout drinking. When asked by both the New Yorker and the Washington Post about the incident Blasey alleges, he says he can’t recall. That, indeed, would be a believable response if the episode was as Blasey described and Judge blacked out following the foiled assault.
2) In that memoir, which Judge peppers with anecdotes, he refers to a conversation with a girl who asked if he knew “O’Kavanaugh.” The memoir gives pseudonyms to his school and classmates and friends, but the reference seems quite clear. Here’s the exchange as Judge presents it:
“So how do you like Prep?” Mary asked.
“It’s cool.”
“Do you know Bart O’Kavanaugh?”
“Yeah, he’s around here somewhere.”
“I heard he puked in someones car the other night.”
“Yeah, he passed out on his way back from a party.”
3) Now that snippet will undoubtedly be objected to, given Judge’s use of psuedonyms in the book making the reference (slightly) questionable. But then there’s Kavanaugh’s own self-description in the G-Prep yearbook of his graduating class:
In his senior-class yearbook entry at Georgetown Prep, Kavanaugh made several references to drinking, claiming membership to the “Beach Week Ralph Club” and “Keg City Club.” He and Judge are pictured together at the beach in a photo in the yearbook.
So not only does he confirm his love of heavy drinking in those entries (“ralph” for the uninitiated, mean’s “vomit”), but the photo of him and Judge at the beach confirms his friendship with the self-described “blackout drunk,” as well as his own relationship with alcohol, adding confirmation to Judge’s anecdotal conversation in his memoir.
As an aside: it will be interesting to see if classmates of his drag out their own yearbooks and post any inscriptions Kavanaugh might have made in them. I know there are a few in my own G-Prep yearbooks (Gonzaga Prep in Spokane) that wouldn’t be flattering those who penned them.
4) Mark Judge is “on the wagon,” apparently, his memoir describing a lifestyle that was debilitating him. Now, alcoholism takes many forms and some folks can go from binge drinking in their youth to drinking in moderation when they’re older. But it must be pointed out that Kavanaugh has not stopped drinking; when his nomination was first presented, his regular bar patronage was presented as a plus.
He was even lauded for his drinking:
. “Even though he has Ivy League credentials and a fancy job, he’s kind of a regular, all-American guy,”
Helgi Walker, a Washington litigator who worked with Kavanaugh under
George W. Bush, told The Washington Post. “He likes to play basketball and drink beer. . . . It’s very refreshing in a town like Washington.”
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So what I’m driving at is that there’s now ample evidence to indicate that Brett Kavanaugh had a serious drinking problem when he was young. As his current employer who is considering giving the guy the ultimate promotion, doesn’t the American Public need to know whether he still has a drinking problem?
Among the many questions surrounding the very credible accusation made by Professor Blasey, certainly a prominent one should be:
“Judge Kavanaugh, please describe in detail what your relationship with alcohol is currently, and let us know how you’ve dealt with your underage drinking binges during your High School years.”