Whew. Am I relieved. I think we just found our next Supreme Court Justice, the perfect person to be a swing vote on the current 4-4 ideologically split Supreme Court, with the intellect, judicial temperament and humanity who will give the country a fair, impartial hearing on the most important issues of the day.
That person is Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
Although this was Judge Brett Kavanaugh's job interview, another candidate, who wasn't even applying for the job, blew him away. Dr. Blasey Ford has all the intellectual, temperamental, and human elements to be a perfect Supreme Court Judge.
Judge Kavanaugh, even if you believed him, while emotional and compelling, failed the interview.
Dr. Blasey Ford, showed, emphatically, that she has the intellectual chops to handle the job. She has five degrees, two Master's degrees, and Ph.D. She understands the process of the brain, and can take an objective, third party look at herself and how she processes information. This would allow her to analyze her own biases, which is essential for this position, handling difficult and emotionally wrenching decisions which will effect millions of people in our country for decades and longer.
She also showed absolutely no politicization of the process, although she had many opportunities to do so. She never once said the standard Democratic line of "there should be an FBI investigation." While she would support that, it was only of the purpose, in her words, "so I can be more helpful."
She showed almost childlike innocence in her humanity. She wasn't a trained, packaged, caricature of a politician or a judge. She was a woman, a mother, a caring human being, who appeared as if she truly was telling the truth as best she knew it, and wanted the truth to be out there, despite the consequences. And finally, she showed guts, grace and character under the most trying of circumstances and stress that anyone can imagine.
These are all the elements I look for in a Supreme Court Judge.
Judge Cavenaugh, on the other hand, despite the heartfelt and tearful testimony, as well as the tempestuous storm of the last two weeks, showed no such attributes. In some ways, I felt sorry for him and his family, for what they have had to go through. However, this was HIS job interview, for the highest most prestigious Court in the land, where the country is looking for a person who is honest above reproach, non-political, pure, humble, with the combination of intellect to analyze the most difficult of issues, and the deep empathy to understand the full spectrum of humanity that the implications of the those decisions will have on millions of people for the rest of his life!
And in that regard, Judge Cavenaugh failed. On multiple levels.
First, he did not look or sound or speak like a man or woman who has the proper judicial temperament for the job. He reminded me of the well-educated, entitled, prep-school brats in Al Pacino's famous movie, "The Scent of a Woman." He was whining. He has gone through hell and back, and instead of being able to describe this hell to us in a way that would have showed all of us, like John McCain, he could handle hell, that this is the guy we want on the bench for the rest of many of our lives, in fact, he showed the exact opposite. I have always felt that nominees for President and Supreme Court Judges should go through an excruciating process which would let the American people see their intellect, mettle, disposition, humanity and decision-making abilities, especially under extreme stress. In this case, we finally had that test. And Judge Cavanaugh, did not pass.
Second, from his initial statement and moving forward, he showed a deep bitterness toward the left, and the Clintons particularly, blaming them among others, and echoing Hilary, of a vast "left-wing conspiracy" to bring him down. How could we trust such a person to be non-partisan on the multitude of crucial decisions he would be making in the coming years? I can imagine that in every case, he would double down on his right-wing leanings, putting a knife in the back and then twisting it, to the liberals who hurt him and his family so badly. That alone is disqualifying.
Finally, and simply, he could have gone above the fray and described the situation, explaining to the Judiciary Committee and the American people the pro's and con's of the arguments on both sides, elucidating what were the nuggets of truth in this complicated situation and what was the secondary noise. This is what a judge does. And in my opinion, if he were smart, he would have said, that this is virtually an impossible situation to decipher, where two seemingly good persons were providing their truths.
So this not about who you believe, and about what they might have done. This about who they are, and who they showed themselves to be.
So yes, my fellow American Committee Members, which at least in our own minds we have a say in this job interview, I think we have surprisingly found our Supreme Court Candidate. And it is Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
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