Brett Kavanaugh’s Persecutors Use the Death Squad Defense
If you want to understand how the left is dealing with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, the best place to look is somewhere unexpected. I ask you to go back in time with me to 1984, when civil war raged in El Salvador between Communist rebels and right-wing death squads.
In 1984, Roberto D’Aubuisson ran for President of El Salvador on the ticket of the far-right ARENA party. He was widely and credibly accused of being in charge of the right-wing death squads. Any village which gave aid and comfort to the guerillas (even at gunpoint), was likely to get massacred.
The D’Aubuisson Defense
Ted Koppel was brash enough to invite D’Aubuisson onto his show Nightline. I watched and will never forget it. Now I can’t find a transcript or video, so I’m going on memory here. It went pretty much like this:
TED KOPPEL: Mr. D’Aubuisson, dozens of news reports from a wide array of reliable journalists claim that you in fact are the guiding hand behind the right-wing death squads. They have murdered tens of thousands….
D’AUBUISSON: Mr. Koppel, let me stop you there. I have a five-point response to these absurd allegations.
- These so-called “right-wing death squads” do not exist. They are a Communist fabrication.
- Besides, they are absolutely necessary to stop the Communists from taking over El Salvador.
- And I have nothing whatsoever to do with them. I have no idea who is in charge of them.
- To reiterate my first point, they do not exist.
- But they are absolutely necessary.
TED KOPPEL: Well, I guess you’ve covered all the bases there, haven’t you, Mr. D’Aubuisson? …
As an ethnocentric 20-year-old, I thought at the time, “Wow, maybe that kind of logic works in Latin America.” Now older, sadder, and wiser, and I see that it works in the U.S. too.
In fact, “The D’Aubuisson Defense” lies at the heart of the attack on Brett Kavanaugh.
Don’t Worry, Jeff Flake Isn’t in the Elevator
If Ted Cruz got caught in an elevator with Dianne Feinstein, their exchange would sound like a long version of Koppel’s exchange with D’Aubuisoon.
FEINSTEIN: Ted, I hope you’re enjoying the last few weeks of your race against Beto.
CRUZ: Y’all are making this race a good deal easier for me, so yes I am.
FEINSTEIN: Cute. And you’re happy to coast to victory on a partisan group-think rejection of a rape survivor’s testimony. That must make you proud.
CRUZ: You went to law school, Diane, didn’t you? Think way, way back….
FEINSTEIN: So now you’re adding ageism to your array of bigoted attitudes. That won’t play well with retirees. And we vote.
CRUZ: You’re not retired, Dianne. Remember? Your memory lapses seem less medical than political.
- You forgot to share Ms. Ford’s allegations with the committee while it was investigating Mr. Kavanaugh.
- Then you forget again, during your private interview with him.
- You even forgot through the whole week of public questioning.
You only remembered when it looked as if he had enough votes to win.
Then you couldn’t remember whether your staff leaked Ms. Ford’s allegations. They had to tell you, in the Senate hearing room. Nor could you recall whether Ms. Ford had leaked them herself. So you blamed her “beach friends.”
FEINSTEIN: It’s a complex, important case. I was being cautious.
The Endless Forgetting
CRUZ: More cautious than George Soros’s employee, Ms. Katz, who represents Ms. Ford. She told the Committee that her client had a morbid fear of flying. Thanks to claustrophobia from being held down in a room by two assailants. But she forget to check Ford’s travel records, which show her gallivanting all around the South Pacific. In airplanes. Ms. Katz also forgot to tell Ms. Ford that the Committee offered to fly out to her home in California and interview her there.
She can’t remember where the party was. Or when it was. Nor how she got there. Or how she got back. Or who was there, apart from four separate people (including Kavanaugh and Judge), each of whom denies it. In fact, it seems that the only things she does remember which we can somehow check … just happen to appear in Mark Judge’s memoir of high school
Y’all forgot to ask Ms. Ford more than two questions on her polygraph, each of them just a variation on “Are you lying?” Then you forgot to provide us with the transcript or the recording of the test. You forgot to get hold of her therapists’ notes, so we could check what she said in 2012 against what she’s saying now.
It seems that folks on your side of the aisle forgot just about everything except how to publicly Bork a nominee.
The Ever Changing Story
FEINSTEIN: The public deserved to hear these allegations.
CRUZ: But not until the moment your team had decided was most strategic. After all the investigation and hearings, but just before the mid-terms. Of course.
Ms. Ford’s memory lapses are interesting too. Now, I’ve no doubt something happened to her at some point in her life. But was it Mr. Kavanaugh and Mr. Judge who victimized her? Rachel Mitchell, who questioned her on the Floor, doesn’t think so. I just read her report. Have you?
FEINSTEIN: No, I’m too busy being about the People’s business.
CRUZ: Oh, but it’s short. You should take a look. She points out how Ford’s story keeps changing, and always in the most convenient way. First the attack was in “the mid-80s.” Then it was in 1982. First it happened in “her late teens.” Next it was when she was 15. First she told her husband about “physical abuse.” Later, it was “sexual abuse.”
She can’t remember where the party was. Or when it was. Nor how she got there. Or how she got back. Or who was there, apart from four separate people (including Kavanaugh and Judge), each of whom denies it.
In fact, it seems the only things she does remember which we can somehow check … just happen to appear in Mark Judge’s memoir of high school. Where anyone at all — Ms. Katz, for instance — could have read them. And, you know … helped Ms. Ford with her memories. Kind of convenient that his memoir includes admissions that he had memory lapses. And went to Beach Week, hoping to hook up. I’m sure those details were very helpful to Ms. Katz. And hence, to Ms. Ford.
The Goalposts Have Left the Stadium
FEINSTEIN: Do you deny that Kavanaugh was lying about his drinking problem in college? His belligerent temper? We have statements from Yalies. …
CRUZ: And I see that y’all are trolling for more, all over Yale alumni Facebook pages. But Kavanaugh never denied that he drank too much. Apparently, almost everyone did back at Yale in the 80s. He denied just two things under oath: Ever drinking enough to pass out, and ever blacking out. Nobody has come forth to say otherwise.
FEINSTEIN: If you think the kind of belligerent, entitled white male attitude Kavanaugh displayed toward your colleagues is suitable to serving on our nation’s highest court. …
CRUZ: In response to an outrageous claim from a porn lawyer that he led a teenage rape gang? With other boys from a high-profile prep school? For years? While nobody said a thing? Yeah, I think I might bristle at that. Only a soulless sociopath who was actually guilty wouldn’t. Or else Michael Dukakis. He might have just shrugged and said, “No, Senator, I do not recall running a rape gang. Next question, please.”
FEINSTEIN: And the other credible allegation, of him exposing himself at a drunken party as a freshman …
CRUZ: Also totally unsupported, even exploded. The accuser took six days with lawyers to get her story straight, before she even could say she “knew” who did it. The New York Times wouldn’t run the story, however much they wanted to. And The New Yorker surrounded it with enough anti-libel disclaimers to stop a column of tanks driven by tort lawyers.
FEINSTEIN: I just don’t see how you can listen to all these anguished memories of real, live women and dismiss them all.
CRUZ: Well, Diane, that’s why we have this little something called the “presumption of innocence.” Suppose my dad came forward tomorrow and said you’d turned him into a newt in 1963. Then four or five other conservatives stepped forth and said you’d done it to them as well.
How many vague, unfalsifiable or even falsified charges by one’s political enemies add up to guilt? Two? Three? A thousand?
Becoming a Banana Republic
FEINSTEIN: I think the voters will disagree. The #MeToo movement is about believing women.
CRUZ: Whether they’re telling the truth or not? I get it. So we should believe that Tawana Brawley was smeared with racist words written in feces. That the Duke Lacrosse team raped a stripper. Maybe that Emmett Till molested Carolyn Bryant, back in 1955. Because women never lie … said no woman, ever.
FEINSTEIN: So you think women are liars. May I quote you on that?
CRUZ: Ms. Mitchell is a woman. And a sex crimes prosecutor. She said that as a prosecutor she could never recommend a case against Kavanaugh.
FEINSTEIN: This isn’t a court of law. The standard isn’t “reasonable doubt.”
CRUZ: No, it’s not. But Mitchell said this case is so weak it would even fail as a civil action, on the “preponderance of the evidence.” In other words, it’s more likely to be false than true. This isn’t some banana republic holding political show trials. It’s the United States of …
FEINSTEIN: But what about the other allegations? What about his problem drinking? His temperament?
CRUZ: Well, I guess you’ve covered all the bases there, haven’t you, Mr. D’Aubuisson? …
FEINSTEIN: Who? What do you mean by that?
CRUZ: Oh, look. The elevator’s moving.
