Amidst a spate of articles and statements from conservative writers, legal scholars, a retired Supreme Court justice, and an increasing number of professional and religious organizations saying he is unfit to be seated on the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh took the extraordinary step of penning an op-ed to try to salvage his nomination. And just as he previously ran to the protective embrace of Rupert Murdoch’s televised right-wing public relations outlet, there’s no surprise that his screed appeared in Murdoch’s print right-wing public relations outlet.
It’s not worth bothering to quote Kavanaugh directly, because he is by this point a well-proven inveterate liar, but his basic premise is that his much-derided angry outbursts during his deliberately truncated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing were not the real him. He admits that he was emotional, as if such an excuse for such behavior would pass muster at any job interview, anywhere, ever, and tepidly allows that maybe at times he went too far, but tellingly, he doesn’t even pretend to apologize.
The laughable title of Kavanaugh’s op-ed is itself a lie:
I Am an Independent, Impartial Judge
Yes, running to Murdoch’s propaganda outlets is how one proves one is independent and impartial. Not to mention that he cut his teeth in politics as a vicious right-wing ratfucker. He’s gaslighting. His entire history is erased. The unhinged fury everyone saw wasn’t what it obviously was. But the record speaks for itself. And the record shows that this was the real Brett Kavanaugh.
For decades, Kavanaugh’s anger has been noted by those who knew him. Even by his own admission, while in prep school his behavior while partying necessitated warning neighbors:
In a 1983 letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times, the young Judge Kavanaugh warned his friends of the danger of eviction from an Ocean City, Md., condo. In a neatly written postscript, he added: Whoever arrived first at the condo should “warn the neighbors that we’re loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us. Advise them to go about 30 miles...”
And it didn’t stop in college:
The New Yorker has not confirmed with other eyewitnesses that Kavanaugh was present at the party. The magazine contacted several dozen classmates of (Deborah) Ramirez and Kavanaugh regarding the incident. Many did not respond to interview requests; others declined to comment, or said they did not attend or remember the party. A classmate of Ramirez’s, who declined to be identified because of the partisan battle over Kavanaugh’s nomination, said that another student told him about the incident either on the night of the party or in the next day or two. The classmate said that he is “one-hundred-per-cent sure” that he was told at the time that Kavanaugh was the student who exposed himself to Ramirez. He independently recalled many of the same details offered by Ramirez, including that a male student had encouraged Kavanaugh as he exposed himself. The classmate, like Ramirez, recalled that the party took place in a common room on the first floor in Entryway B of Lawrance Hall, during their freshman year. “I’ve known this all along,” he said. “It’s been on my mind all these years when his name came up. It was a big deal.” The story stayed with him, he said, because it was disturbing and seemed outside the bounds of typically acceptable behavior, even during heavy drinking at parties on campus. The classmate said that he had been shocked, but not necessarily surprised, because the social group to which Kavanaugh belonged often drank to excess. He recalled Kavanaugh as “relatively shy” until he drank, at which point he said that Kavanaugh could become “aggressive and even belligerent.”
We now know the identity of the anonymous former classmate, because he chose to go public earlier this week. And he wasn’t just a classmate, he was a suitemate, and he also publicly corroborated Ramirez’s allegation:
Kenneth G. Appold was a suitemate of Kavanaugh’s at the time of the alleged incident. He had previously spoken to The New Yorker about Ramirez on condition of anonymity, but he said that he is now willing to be identified because he believes that the F.B.I. must thoroughly investigate her allegation. Appold, who is the James Hastings Nichols Professor of Reformation History at Princeton Theological Seminary, said that he first heard about the alleged incident involving Kavanaugh and Ramirez either the night it occurred or a day or two later. Appold said that he was “one-hundred-per-cent certain” that he was told that Kavanaugh was the male student who exposed himself to Ramirez. He said that he never discussed the allegation with Ramirez, whom he said he barely knew in college. But he recalled details—which, he said, an eyewitness described to him at the time—that match Ramirez’s memory of what happened. “I can corroborate Debbie’s account,” he said in an interview. “I believe her, because it matches the same story I heard thirty-five years ago, although the two of us have never talked.”
And although he didn’t witness or hear about Kavanaugh assaulting Ramirez, another former Kavanaugh roommate, James Roche, used the exact same term to describe Kavanaugh’s behavior while drunk:
Since the New Yorker story came out, I have been asked for countless interviews by print publications, TV, and online media, the vast majority of which I have resisted. Ultimately I wrote and distributed a statement to minimize the distraction to my personal and business life. In the statement, I wrote that Brett “was a notably heavy drinker, even by the standards of the time, and that he became aggressive and belligerent when he was very drunk.”
And from yet another former Yale classmate, we seem to have a theme:
Charles "Chad" Ludington, an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University, released a statement saying Kavanaugh "has not told the truth" when denying he never blacked out and downplaying his drinking as a young man.
"On many occasions, I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption," Ludington wrote. "When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive."
Ludington said he would not discuss Kavanaugh with the media but would tell his story to the FBI.
Ludington was one of the witnesses to the bar fight that led to Kavanaugh being questioned by police.
A report released Tuesday by police in New Haven, Connecticut, says Kavanaugh was questioned after the 1985 incident, but wasn’t arrested.
The report says 21-year-old Dom Cozzolino told police that Kavanaugh threw ice at him for “some unknown reason.” Cozzolino said he then got hit on the ear with a glass.
A witness told police the man who threw the glass was Chris Dudley, Kavanaugh’s close friend.
Of course, that unknown reason reportedly was that Kavanaugh thought Cozzolino was the lead singer of the band UB40, and flipped out when told Cozzolino wasn’t. And not surprisingly, the failed political candidate Dudley has stepped forward as a Kavanaugh character witness, unintentionally revealing more about his character than that of Kavanaugh.
And it didn’t stop even after law school, when Kavanaugh was working in the George W. Bush administration. Once again, by his own admission:
As recorded in White House emails, recently released by Judiciary Committee member Sen. Cory Booker, Kavanaugh and a group of friends organized a 2001 boat trip out of Annapolis, Maryland. The humor of the email chain is both fratty and racist. One Kavanaugh buddy, whose name is redacted but who identifies himself as “your cruise director” writes an email with the subject line “Su Ching is booked.” The email reads in part: “Although you may be hoping that I’ve lined up a hostess for a rub-n-tug massage session, ‘su Ching’ actually is the sailboat (a Tayana 55) we’ve got … out of Annapolis.”
In an email dated September 10, 2001, Kavanaugh records his satisfaction with the adventure: “Excellent time. Apologies to all for missing Friday (good excuse), arriving late Saturday (weak excuse), and growing aggressive after blowing still another game of dice (don’t recall).”
Loud and obnoxious. Aggressive. Belligerent. Again and again and again. Exactly the man the entire nation watched during a public interview to be confirmed to a lifetime appointment to the most powerful judicial bench in the nation. Loud and obnoxious. Aggressive. Belligerent. To the Senate Judiciary Committee. As an adult while working for a president. In college. In high school. It’s who Brett Kavanaugh is.
