Stop the presses, everyone. Sen. Orrin Hatch has settled the question of whether Brett Kavanaugh committed attempted rape as a teenager. How did Hatch settle it? Simple: Kavanaugh denied it, and Hatch believed him and expects the rest of us to follow suit.
“The judge, who I know very, very well, is an honest man, said this didn’t happen,” Hatch said. In fact, Kavanaugh denied even having been at the party! Which is interesting, since Christine Blasey Ford didn’t pin down a date and made clear that it was an informal party, so Kavanaugh is, what, claiming he didn’t attend any parties at someone’s house somewhere near the Columbia Country Club in the summer of 1982? Ford would probably be interested to hear Kavanaugh’s recollection of exactly which party he didn’t try to rape her at.
Even hearings find reason to believe that Kavanaugh did do it, though, Orrin Hatch isn’t too worried, saying “If that was true, I think it would be hard for senators to not consider who the judge is today. That’s the issue. Is this judge a really good man? And he is. And by any measure he is.” Except the measure of whether he’s lying about having tried to rape a younger girl in high school. And when you’re defending someone by saying you believe him when he says he didn’t attempt that rape, but you also say that hey, even if he did, I still support him for a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court? You’re saying you suspect he did it. When you really believe someone didn’t do something, you don’t have a back-up scenario for if it turns out he did.
Hatch floated another theory about what could be going on, too. He suggested that Ford is “mixed up,” amplifying that by going on CNN and suggesting it could all be a case of mistaken identity. This bears a fascinating resemblance to Hatch’s position on Anita Hill back in 1991, Judd Legum pointed out. Now Christine Blasey Ford is “mixed up,” and back then, according to Hatch, “There are a lot of things that just don't make sense to me about Anita Hill's testimony. Some of it just doesn't square with what I think is basic reality and common sense.”
Orrin Hatch himself seems a little confused, a little disconnected with basic reality and common sense. But is it confusion or just basic dishonesty?