We Learned Something New About Brett Kavanaugh's College Days. Spoiler: It's Not Great!
What's new with our future Supreme Court justice? One thing we have learned as things have spun out of control completely is that Brett Kavanaugh, in his own prep-school, Ivy League, highly credentialed way, is one strange dude. First of all, there's this, from HuffPost:
Rubenfeld took care to warn her about two judges in particular: First, Alex Kozinski, then a judge on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was known to sexually harass his clerks, he told her. (Kozinskiretired in December amidaccusations of harassment.) The other was Kavanaugh. Though the judge was known to hire female clerks who had a “certain look,” Rubenfeld told her, he emphasized that he had heard nothing else untoward. “He did not say what the ‘certain look’ was. I did not ask,” the woman said. “It was very clear to me that he was talking about physical appearance, because it was phrased as a warning ― and because it came after the warning about Judge Kozinski.”
That’s when Rubenfeld’s wife stepped in. At Yale, Chua is less known as the “tiger mom” and more sought after for her ability to help students land prestigious clerkships with federal judges ― the sort that can ultimately land a student the ultimate prize, a spot clerking for a Supreme Court justice.
Wait, how did Tiger Mom get in this story? Somebody call the writer's room!
“She advised me to be and dress ‘outgoing,’” the former Yale student said. “She strongly urged me to send her pictures of what I was thinking of wearing so she could evaluate. I did not.” At the time the student said she didn’t know if this sartorial advice was about her own look, Kavanaugh’s preferences or Chua’s ideas about what Kavanaugh liked. A friend suggested that the student needed the advice because she was “awkward,” according to a transcript of a Gchat conversation that the Yale student had at the time and that was viewed by HuffPost.
Geez, momma was right about them Ivy League types.
And then there's this, from The Yale Daily News, viathe invaluable Edroso:
The sexual misconduct allegations are the first against Kavanaugh. As an undergraduate, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, the fraternity that came under fire this year over allegations of sexual misconduct. But in Kavanaugh’s time, the fraternity was relatively tame, according to undergraduates who attended the University in the 1980s. He was also a member of Truth and Courage, an all-male club popular among athletes and known to some by the nickname “Tit and Clit.”
OK, all of us, especially men, were jackasses in college. But why does it seem that so many of the Good Catholic Boys who go Ivy wind up completely off the rails? I blame the Episcopalians.
Alas for the nominee, at least one great legal mind has weighed in on whether or not there ought to be an FBI investigation into Dr. Ford's allegation before any Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is held. From Politico:
“‘What happened here is actually not unusual,’ said John Yoo, a senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. ‘The Judiciary Committee will often say to the Justice Department: “Can you send the agents back out and find out if this is true, find out what happened with this?” ... The normal procedure for this would have been to send the FBI out,’ Yoo added.
I don't know why someone would seek out the ol' torture apologist for a quote, but that's a question for another day. What I do know is that "normal procedure" would have John Yoo in irons at The Hague.
More, I am sure, to follow.
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