When Christine Blasey Ford opened her mouth at the Senate confirmation hearing, my mouth dropped.
The voice that I heard was not anything like what I expected.
Dr. Ford sounded like a child. Her whispered voice was several degrees less of a mature woman’s voice than the voice Marilyn Monroe used in her created screen persona generations ago.
Ford came off as an innocent pubescent child – like a 15-year-old teenager. Like the one that was allegedly sexually assaulted. She couldn’t bring us facts. Instead, she brought us herself as the put upon child of 36 years ago.
Ford’s act was exactly that – an act. The proper word is disingenuous.
So often in her testimony she was flustered and couldn’t remember things she did only several weeks ago. She used her “confusion” as a way to avoid answering questions. This confusion is from a lady who has two master’s and a doctorate, and teaches, and was throwing around neuron pathway terminology with terms like hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with memory – which she wants us to believe is missing in her brain.
She continually had to ask for Rachel Mitchell’s questions to be repeated. We’re not talking about long serious complicated delving questions. We’re talking about questions such as whether or not she showed her therapy notes to the reporter for the Washington Post. The question appeared to stymie her. It was a great ‘running out the clock’ technique. Minutes to give a ten second yes or no answer.
Many simple questions appeared to leave her befuddled. She really wasn’t. She just didn’t want to give a straight answer.
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And, it was obvious she was looking for guidance on many simple questions, the straight answer to which would have given up the game.
She knew she was caught in a deception when she finally had to admit that she really had no problem flying – only that she ‘guessed’ it was, said with a big shy smile, easier to fly the other way to a vacation than to Washington. Not just east, but to Washington, since she flies to her parents’ home in Delaware frequently.
She avoided questions about how she came to hire her attorneys, only saying that a ‘whole bunch of people’ gave her guidance, until she finally answered that Feinstein’s office recommended one attorney. About the other – well, who knows?
Kavanaugh, who when he spoke, came off as someone who was equal in stature to the senators – reflective of his years working with President Bush and serving on the Federal bench. In contrast, Ford presented herself as a put upon befuddled victim, a child.
Her answers to contemporary questions were as disingenuous, deceptive and spotty as her testimony about the alleged assault.
The lady who testified that she was “fiercely independent” most certainly had a sore neck at the end of the hearing as a result of continually turning to her attorneys for answers and guidance.
I don’t know anyone who would hire an attorney, probably charging north of $300, without having some idea of how the bill was going to be paid. Ford, on the other hand, just didn’t know who was paying for her lawyers. It was her lawyer, Michael Bromwell that finally grabbed the mic and explained that both he and Debra Katz were working pro bono.
The doctor with two masters and a diagram of the hippocampus tattooed on her forehead couldn’t answer that question.
Obviously, she understands the political charade being played out in the Senate. She just didn’t want the attentive American public to see she knew exactly what she was doing. But, Ford’s credentials were good enough to allow her some credence. And, that was enough cachet to get her to the Senate.
Her story had no forensic evidence, no corroborating witnesses. The timing of the allegations themselves was more than suspect.
Even simple parts of her story were out of joint. Consider that she was in a house she’d never been in, but yet she went upstairs to use a bathroom. Wasn’t there a bathroom on the main floor? I would assume so. So, what was she doing on the “second floor?”
Ford is no fool. She’s no one’s puppet. She’s an operative working for someone. I wish I could prove it, but, sadly I can’t.
Still, looking at her story and how everything played out, a few things do stand out.
Ford’s story, as well as the other accusations that followed, are based on one thread - Kavanaugh’s past drinking history - his teenage and early college beer drinking. His friend Mark Judge published a memoir of his own drinking days. The book coupled with a high school yearbook referencing Judge’s and Kavanaugh’s drinking, was used as the linchpin upon which to fabricate the entire sexual assault story. The fewer facts that existed, the cleaner the lie; and the less chance of the lie becoming unraveled on some small point. Anyone who knows how to lie knows to keep the lie simple. Keep it clean.
The entire attack on Kavanaugh was based on his propensity for drinking beer. Someone did their research and used it, much in the same way that Trump’s fondness for women has been used against him, and all kinds of charges, like pissing on prostitutes in Moscow, have been created.
This is the same pattern for the attack on Kavanaugh.
No. Ford is not a fool. And, as much a she wanted us to believe she was a put-upon Alice in Wonderland, she is not.
The good doctor gave quite a performance – the script was just not good enough to support her acting. It was a simple script, because it had to be simple, so that basic facts, such as the location and ownership of the party house could not be pinned down for a proper investigation. And, because the script was thin, it was just not good enough to be believable.
But – the story was never intended to be believable. It was intended to create confusion and doubt and be followed by several more accusations - to create enough doubt to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Hopefully, it won’t.
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