Musings Of A New Southern Man

I was ready to watch the 1:30 p.m. political show known as the committee vote to send Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. I figured it was a done deal. Final expected score: Republicans 11, Democrats at least one less depending on how many members opted to abstain. Funny thing happened on the way to that done deal. It was marvelous reality TV, much more enjoyable than Thursday's battle royal featuring testimony from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. We can thank Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona for Friday's surprise. Flake had an attack of conscience, or maybe he read the political winds better than his allies, and requested an investigation to last no more than one week. The focus of the investigation will be the other people identified by Dr. Ford as being at the site of the alleged sexual abuse by Judge Kavanaugh, then a teenager at a D.C. area prep school. It was the wise request. Imagine that in Congress. A major force behind the move

It was riveting reality TV. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh made impressive appearances in today's congressional hearing. There are culprits in this story, but I'll get to that later. Let me set some ground rules in this story. This is not a case of women who are sexually abused against the system. Yes, there are numerous cases of abuse that go unreported for a number of reasons, and often the system is to blame. But this case is simply a matter of whether Judge Kavanaugh abused Dr. Ford when they were teenagers. All the other cases of abuse must be put to the side as we weigh the truth of today's testimony. (By the way, I know the powerful impact of sexual abuse because I dealt with that issue within my own house. My wife was abused as a teenager, and she opened up about that incident through therapy, just as Dr. Ford did.) Dr. Ford was more than a credible witness. She was calm and believable. She stood up against her own fears of going public a

I write today as I await the start of the Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh appearances before the congressional committee. There might be no other hearing in my life that I feel compelled to view. I will watch both major figures testify. So will millions of others. What will be more interesting to watch are the judgments of those viewers. I believe a vast majority of those people already have their minds made up as far as guilt or innocence on Kavanaugh's part. Why? Because we are a nation that is deeply divided to the point that truth rests on political leanings. The perception of events overpowers the reality of the situation. As The Rock Man says in Harry Nilsson's The Point: "You see what you want to see and hear what you want to hear." I will comment on the testimonies after they are finished, but for now I will concentrate on the deeply divided nation. To do that, I will use the public comments by two of my Facebook friends, both acquainta