What I know about Kavanaugh– he’s a liar

I’ve already dropped a few links in quick hits about the fact that Kavanaugh likely perjured himself in earlier Senate testimony about access to stolen files.  But, nobody has really paid much attention to that.  Things is, though, for anybody the least bit open-minded and paying attention it is super-clear that Kavanaugh was a hard-partying, hard-drinker in his early adulthood.  That does not mean he was a sexual assaulter.  But, he repeatedly refuses to own up to this and been zealously lying to the contrary despite the fact that it is pretty obvious to everybody.  On the one hand, maybe his yearbook paragraph is small potatoes, on the other, I was a teenager in the 80’s and “boof” is definitely not a reference to flatulence and you don’t claim the champion “ralphing”award because you’ve got a weak stomach.  Chait has a nice summary of the lying here:

Why do I believe Kavanaugh is lying? The charges are credible, and his accusers are willing to put themselves at risk, with no apparent gain to bring them to the public. Kavanaugh has said too many things that strain credulity for all them to be plausibly true. He almost certainly lied about having had access to files stolen by Senate Republicans back when he was handling judicial nominations in the Bush administration. His explanation that the “Renate Alumni” was not a sexual reference is difficult to square with a fellow Renate Alumnus’s poem ( “You need a date / and it’s getting late / so don’t hesitate / to call Renate”) portraying her as a cheap date. His insistence “boof” and “devil’s triangle” from his yearbook were references to flatulence and a drinking game drew incredulous responses from people his age who have heard these terms. His claim that the “Beach Week Ralph Club” was a reference to a weak stomach seems highly unlikely.

The accretion of curious details ultimately overwhelms the small possibility that he is a man wronged. The conviction he summoned is the righteous belief of an adult who feels he should not be denied the career reward due to him by the errors of his youth, and who decided from the outset to close the door to that period in his life. Perhaps he believes he has made amends for his cruelty. I see a liar who has the chance to prove his good faith innocence, and has conspicuously refused.

Short version, I’m pretty damn sure that Kavanaugh is a liar in high-stakes circumstances (i.e., Senate testimony).  I know he has everything to gain by lying (a Supreme Court seat).  I have no idea whether Blasey Ford is a liar or not, but no particular reason to believe she is.  And, it’s also pretty clear that she has nothing to gain from false testimony against Kavanaugh.  So, ,who to believe?  That’s an easy one.

In the end, though, whatever doubts may remain about the alleged incident between Kavanaugh and Blasey Ford (and there is real room for doubt), I have almost no doubt that Kavanaugh is a public liar before the United State Senate.  (He’s also, clearly, an intemperate partisan hack).  And that is more than enough to disqualify him for the Supreme Court.