Just for one day
By
The woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault has told the Senate Judiciary Committee, in an apparent bid to jump-start negotiations, that she “would be prepared to testify next week,” so long as senators offer “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” according to an email her lawyers sent to committee staff members.
In the email, obtained by The New York Times, the lawyer for Christine Blasey Ford said that testifying Monday — the timetable Republicans have set for a hearing — “is not possible and the Committee’s insistence that it occur then is arbitrary in any event.” The lawyer reiterated that it is Dr. Blasey’s “strong preference” that “a full investigation” occur before her testimony — wording that stopped short of demanding an F.B.I. probe and suggested she is open to testifying without one.
Dr. Blasey has accused Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, of sexually assaulting her when the two were in high school at a gathering of teenagers in Montgomery County, Md. Judge Kavanaugh has categorically denied the allegation and has said he would be willing to testify.
In the email, addressed to top Republican and Democratic aides on the committee, the lawyer, Debra Katz, wrote that she would like to set up a call later on Thursday to “discuss the conditions” under which Dr. Blasey would be prepared to testify.
You know the very last thing the GOP wants is for Blasey to testify. (Actually the very last thing they want is a real investigation, but they can stop that from happening at what no doubt seems like an acceptable cost to them). But I don’t think it’s a realistic option for Grassley et. al. to just go forward without her on Monday. The outrageous bad faith involved in such an act would be too much for even the Village to swallow.
It’s difficult to overstate the courage that Christine Blasey Ford is demonstrating in this situation. The odds that she’s the only woman that Brett Kavanaugh has “allegedly” sexually assaulted are very low. And no one should blame any woman for not subjecting herself to what Blasey is now going through. It would be obscene to demand that she continue to put herself through this, simply because we her fellow citizens failed to stop Donald Trump from becoming president and Brett Kavanaugh from being nominated to the Supreme Court.
But I don’t think it’s wrong to beg her to be the hero we don’t deserve.