Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, barked at female sex-crime victims, “Grow up!” He called Christine Blasey Ford a “pleasing” witness. He shooed women away with a flick of his wrist. Hatch also posted “an uncorroborated account from a Utah man questioning the legitimacy and sexual preferences” of Julie Swetnick, one of Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers.
The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board raked him over the coals:
"The despicable attack launched by Sen. Orrin Hatch and the Senate Judiciary Committee - more precisely, the Republicans on that committee - on one of the women who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault is a textbook example of why more victims do not come forward.
"Worse, it betrays a positively medieval attitude toward all women as sex objects who cannot be believed or taken seriously."
Not a single Republican spoke up to criticize him. One would think someone would point out that he brought dishonor on himself, his party and the Senate. But clearly Republicans take no umbrage at such conduct.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, attempted to excuse the lack of a single Republican woman - ever - on the Judiciary Committee. "It's a lot of work - maybe they don't want to do it."
Kavanaugh snapped and sneered at female senators on the Judiciary Committee. Republicans didn't bat an eye or hold it against him. He was just mad, you see.
President Donald Trump repeated the calumny that if the attack was "as bad" as Ford said she'd have gone to the police. He declared it was a "scary time" for young men. He openly mocked Ford at a rally to gin up his base's anger. Republican apologists said he was just explaining the facts. He actually misrepresented her testimony, falsely claiming she couldn't recall many facts - the neighborhood of the house where she was attacked.
In Slate, William Saletan called out Trump and his defenders: “It’s true that Ford can’t recall important details about place and time. It’s true that she can’t recall how she got to the house or how she left. It’s true that every accused person is entitled to a presumption of innocence. But Trump’s portrayal of Ford’s testimony wasn’t true. It was a pack of lies. And people who defend it, like Lindsey Graham, are liars too.”
Trump and other Republicans accused sex-crime victims protesting Kavanaugh as protesters paid by George Soros (a Jewish left-wing billionaire whose name is routinely invoked in anti-Semitic attacks). The GOP Senate whip, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called the victims a "mob" and echoed the bogus claim that they were paid protesters. They deny victims' very existence; they are non-persons - props sent by opponents to ruin a man's life.
Graham snorted that he'd hear what "the lady has to say" and then vote Kavanaugh in. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he'd "plow right through" (more like plow over) Ford's testimony and confirm Kavanaugh. Republicans' defense of Kavanaugh - that Ford and others were props of a left-wing plot and therefore lacked agency of their own - evidences the party's attitude toward women.
You cannot say a party that embraces a deeply misogynistic president who bragged about sexually assaulting women and mocked and taunted a sex-crime victim; accepted a blatantly insufficient investigation of credible sex crimes against women in lieu of a serious one that the White House counsel knew would be disastrous; repeatedly insulted and dismissed sex-crime victims exercising their constitutional rights; has never put a single woman on the Judiciary Committee (and then blames its own female members for being too lazy); and whips up male resentment of female accusers is a party that respects women. Its members resent women. They scorn women. They exclude women. They use women to maintain their grip on power. But they do not respect them.
What's worse is that Republicans who would never engage in this cruel and demeaning behavior themselves don't bat an eye when their party's leaders do so. Acceptance of Trump's misogyny - like their rationalization of the president's overt racism - becomes a necessity for loyal Republicans. If it bothers a Republican, he or she dare not say so. One either agrees or ignores or rationalizes such conduct, or one decide it's a small price to pay ("it" being the humiliation of women) for tax cuts and judges. It's just words, you know.
The Republican Party no longer bothers to conceal its loathing of immigrants, its contempt for a free press, its disdain for the rule of law or its views on women. Indeed, these things now define a party that survives by inflaming white male resentment. Without women to kick around, how would they get their judge on the court or their guys to the polls?
Women with this ordeal seared into the hippocampus of their brains will vote in November. Women are expected to forget or move on? I don’t think so.
Jennifer Rubin | The Washington Post
Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion from a center-right perspective for The Washington Post.
@JRubinBlogger
