MSNBC just reported (on Lawrence O’Donnell) that somebody familiar with the Kavanaugh letter said it might contain allegations of sexual assault and it might not. Ninety percent of the time (rough estimate) that means the letter contains allegations of sexual assault. I am beginning to think that the American public can not handle what is in that letter and that it would best if Kavanaugh could just slink away. Obviously that’s what he is being given the chance to do. Let’s go over what we seem to know and what that might mean.
The letter is second hand information from somebody at Stanford. This person does not want to come forward. What does this mean.
Obviously not a student. Too young and nobody would take it seriously. It is almost certainly a faculty member and one with some stature. I am going to take a leap of logic and suggest that it is a faculty member on the law faculty. Why because this woman seems to understand her place and obligations under the law without legal counsel.
The next question, which has two sub-questions. Why, if it is second hand knowledge, does she not want to come forward and why is second hand knowledge being taken so seriously. It is supposedly based on a story this person heard from somebody else. I have been wracking my brain as to what this means. Here is my hypothesis. She heard the story from another lawyer and she doesn’t want to or can’t betray.
So sexual assault three decades ago at one the the country’s elite private schools and faculty (as I said maybe law) seem to have knowledge of what happened. And it is dramatic.
So logically let’s think about what might have happened and why faculty at Stanford seem to know about it. Here is what I’m thinking.
Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman. The woman tried to bring charges. A powerful family and a powerful school were able to make it go away. A young lawyer was involved (possibly in something he was not very proud about) who eventually made it to Stanford. Thirty years later the #metoo movement emerges. The lawyer who is still carrying a guilty conscience because to the role he might have played (I’m thinking it was a male) confesses his part to a female friend on the faculty.
But it that were true it wouldn’t be the most intense part. At that age males tend to travel and engage in sexual assaults in packs. What if it wasn’t just Kavanaugh involved? The boy Kavanaugh went to school with are now part of the power elite in this country. What if other powerful families were involved? A stretch, but it you actually know about adolescent boys in contexts of power and sexual assault maybe not that much of a stretch.
And remember, the prep school is all boys. The woman who brought the allegations would necessarily be an outsider (although maybe it isn’t a woman).
Kavanaugh knows what he did, whatever it was. My guess is he is deep in his cups tonight. If others were involved in the assault he is probably also terrified.
We may find out more than we ever wanted to know.