Borked

In the New York Post, Andrew McCarthy writes about Robert Bork.

A scholar of great breadth, the late judge was a man from another time: a patriot who’d enlisted in the Marines at 17 during World War II and been called back to duty when the Korean War broke out, even as he embarked on a legendary life in the law. In 1987, four years before the Thomas–Hill hearings, he himself was mugged by Senate Democrats. This libelous character assassination, derailing Bork’s nomination by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, had been led by Ted Kennedy.

Back in 1969, Sen. Kennedy had recklessly caused the death of a young woman by driving her off a rickety bridge on Chappaquiddick Island as they sped away from a booze-soaked bacchanal. Kennedy managed to save himself by swimming to safety. He then abandoned the scene for hours, failing to alert police and rescue workers while Mary Jo Kopechne, submerged in the car, eventually drowned.

Kopechne did not live to see “Me Too.” That “movement” was not forged until long after leftists had raised Kennedy to “Lion of the Senate” status. Indeed, it was not forged until 20 years after Democrats, prominently including women’s-rights advocates, closed ranks around President Bill Clinton.

According to the victim’s credible accusation, Clinton had raped Juanita Broaddrick in 1978. At the time, he was the 32-year-old attorney general of Arkansas. That assault came to light during the investigation of Clinton’s obstruction of a sexual-harassment suit filed by Paula Jones. She alleged that, while governor of Arkansas, Clinton had exposed himself to her, demanding oral sex. She declined and fled the room.

In the face of Jones’ entirely credible allegation, a top Clinton White House aide set the narrative: “Drag a hundred dollars through a trailer park and there’s no telling what you’ll find.” Clinton eventually paid $850,000 to settle the matter out of court.

The president was later held in contempt of court for providing perjurious testimony. That testimony was about Monica Lewinsky. It was also through Jones’ case that we discovered that Clinton, while the 50-year-old president of the United States, had arranged Oval Office sexual liaisons with the then-22-year-old White House intern.

...Kavanaugh’s nomination is imperiled because of a highly dubious, unverifiable allegation of bumbling, drunken sexual aggression as a high-school student: an assault the purported victim never told anyone about (not the police, not a friend, not her parents) until therapy sessions 30 years after the “fact.”

If the Democrats had raised the allegation in a timely manner, its weakness would have been palpable, it would have been used for what little it’s worth during Kavanaugh’s testimony, it would be put to rest as unverifiable, and we’d be on to a confirmation vote.

Read more here.