| Kavanaugh’s memory of himself in high school is very different than his portrayal in the yearbook | ||||||||||||
“The vast majority of the time I spent in high school was studying or focused on sports and being a good friend to the boys and the girls that I was friends with,” Kavanaugh said earnestly. “I went to an all-boys Catholic high school where I was focused on academics and athletics, going to church every Sunday … working on my service projects and friendship – friendship with my fellow classmates and friendship with girls from the local all-girls Catholic schools. … I’ve always treated women with dignity and respect… “And, yes, there were parties,” the 53-year-old added. “The drinking age was 18, and yes, the seniors were legal and had beer there. And, yes, people might have had too many beers on occasion, and people generally in high school – I think all of us – have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret or cringe a bit, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about an allegation of sexual assault. I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. … And the girls from the schools I went to and I were friends.” -- Kavanaugh repeatedly cited a letter signed by 65 women who said they knew him in high school and that “he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect,” but one of the signatories has just renounced her support. There is a cryptic reference on Kavanaugh’s yearbook page that describes him as a “Renate Alumnius,” Kate Kelly and David Enrich report in the New York Times. “The word ‘Renate’ appears at least 14 times in Georgetown Preparatory School’s 1983 yearbook, on individuals’ pages and in a group photo of nine football players, including Judge Kavanaugh, who were described as the ‘Renate Alumni.’ It is a reference to Renate Schroeder, then a student at a nearby Catholic girls’ school. Two of Judge Kavanaugh’s classmates say the mentions of Renate were part of the football players’ unsubstantiated boasting about their conquests. “When [Renate Schroeder Dolphin] signed the Sept. 14 letter, she wasn’t aware of the ‘Renate’ yearbook references on the pages of Judge Kavanaugh and his football teammates. ‘I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago,’ Ms. Dolphin said … ‘I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means. I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way.’” A member of Kavanaugh’s growing legal team, Alexandra Walsh, told the Times that the inside joke was simply a reference to a single high school event that the two attended together, during which they “shared a brief kiss good night.” Dolphin replied that she never kissed Kavanaugh. “I think Brett must have me confused with someone else,” she said through her lawyer. “They were very disrespectful, at least verbally, with Renate,” said Sean Hagan, a Georgetown Prep student at the time, said of Kavanaugh and his teammates, in an interview with the Times. “I can’t express how disgusted I am with them, then and now. … She should be offended. I was completely astounded when I saw she signed that letter.” -- Why this matters: If it turns out that Kavanaugh is not telling the truth about comparatively little things, that could undercut the credibility of his denials about the bigger things. Ford is eager to tell her story to the FBI and to testify under oath -- and passed a polygraph administered by a retired FBI agent and told her therapist about the incident several years ago. Kavanaugh and the White House, meanwhile, have resisted asking the FBI to open an investigation, instead dismissing the allegations as “smears.” 
Mark Judge stands outside a friend’s home Monday in the seaside holiday village of Bethany Beach, Del. (Gabriel Pogrund/The Washington Post)
-- One of the other people described in that yearbook as a “Renate Alumni” is Mark Judge. Ford says Judge watched Kavanaugh attack her at a high school party in the early 1980s and that he leaped on top of her and Kavanaugh, allowing her to escape. Judge has said he does not remember the party and never saw Kavanaugh behave like that.“A review of books, articles and blog posts by Judge … describes an ’80s private-school party scene in which heavy drinking and sexual encounters were standard fare,” Marc Fisher and Perry Stein reported last week. “Judge wrote about the pledge he and his friends … made to drink 100 kegs of beer before graduation. On their way to that goal, there was a ‘disastrous’ party ‘at my house where the place was trashed,’ Judge wrote in his book ‘God and Man at Georgetown Prep.’ Kavanaugh listed himself in the class yearbook as treasurer of the ‘100 Kegs or Bust’ club.” (Individual students got to design their personal yearbook pages at the school, so this wasn’t someone else pulling Kavanaugh’s leg.) “During senior year, Judge said he and his pals hired a stripper and bought a keg for a bachelor party they threw to honor their school’s music teacher,” per Fisher and Stein. “‘Most of the time everyone, including the girls, was drunk,’ Judge wrote in ‘Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk,’ a memoir of his alcoholism and recovery. ‘If you could breathe and walk at the same time, you could hook up with someone. This did not mean going all the way … but after a year spent in school without girls, heavy petting was basically an orgy.’” In “Wasted,” Judge refers to a “Bart O’Kavanaugh” who was passed out from drinking too much and threw up in a car. -- Judge has tried to disappear since Ford went public, and Senate Republicans are blocking Democratic efforts to subpoena him to appear during Thursday’s hearing. Post reporter Gabriel Pogrund tracked him down on Monday at the house of a longtime friend in Bethany Beach, Del., where he’s been in seclusion: “A car in the driveway contained piles of clothing, a collection of Superman comics and a package addressed to Judge at the Potomac home where he lived three years ago. ‘How’d you find me?’ he said. The reporter gestured to the car packed with belongings. Judge declined to comment further. Barbara ‘Biz’ VanGelder, Judge’s lawyer, said she instructed him to leave the D.C. area last week because of an onslaught of criticism and media questions.” -- During the appearance on Fox, host Martha MacCallum pressed Kavanaugh on his drinking. His freshman roommate at Yale University, James Roche, told the New Yorker that he never witnessed Kavanaugh engage in any sexual misconduct, but that he does recall him being “frequently, incoherently drunk.” Now the chief executive of a software company in San Francisco, Roche told the magazine: “Is it believable that she was alone with a wolfy group of guys who thought it was funny to sexually torment a girl like Debbie? Yeah, definitely. Is it believable that Kavanaugh was one of them? Yes.” He added that he cannot imagine Ramirez making up her story. Kavanaugh said he remembers Roche but emphasized that he does not corroborate Ramirez’s story. Asked why his ex-roommate would say that he could see Kavanaugh treating a woman this way, the nominee said: “I’m not going to speculate about motives. … If I had done that, it would’ve been the talk of campus.” MacCallum asked, “Was there ever a time that you drank so much that you couldn’t remember what happened the night before?” “No, that never happened,” said Kavanaugh. “You never said to anyone, “I don’t remember anything about last night,’” MacCallum followed up. “No, that did not happen,” he replied. -- Kavanaugh also said on Fox that he kept his virginity through high school and for “many years after” college, though neither of his accusers said they had sexual intercourse. Ford says he pinned her to a bed, groped her and tried to remove her clothes. Ramirez says he exposed himself to her during a drinking game at Yale and caused her to touch him in an unwanted way. He categorically denies any wrongdoing. -- “It is unheard of for a Supreme Court nominee to give interviews during the confirmation process,” Robert Barnes notes. “Lori A. Ringhand, a law professor at the University of Georgia and an expert on the confirmation process, noted that Felix Frankfurter became the first Supreme Court nominee to testify in public to counter criticism that surfaced during his hearing. And Justice Hugo Black gave a national radio address after he was confirmed to denounce his past association with the Ku Klux Klan. ‘In some ways it isn’t surprising that this type of interview is the next step,’ Ringhand wrote in an email. But she added that by appearing on Fox News, a favorite of conservatives, Kavanaugh ‘is making his appeal on what many perceive as a highly partisan platform. That is risky, in that it can make the nominee himself appear overly partisan.”
-- In the wake of the New Yorker story, Republicans launched a full-court press on Kavanaugh’s behalf, casting doubt and flooding the zone. Trump said he was with Kavanaugh “all the way” and called him to wish him luck ahead of the Fox sit-down. McConnell promised that there will be a vote “in the near future,” and his lieutenants said they’re going to try to vote Kavanaugh out of committee this Friday – on the morning after Ford’s testimony. -- Also on Monday, 128 anti-Kavanaugh protesters were arrested at the Capitol complex and charged with unlawfully demonstrating, per Justin Wm. Moyer. -- Looking ahead to Thursday, Republicans apparently continue to insist that Ford be questioned by a female attorney. Michael Bromwich, Ford’s lawyer, complained last night that Grassley’s staff has said they’re going to have an “experienced sex crimes prosecutor” ask questions, but they’ve thus far refused to identify that person. “This is not a criminal trial for which the involvement of an experienced sex crimes prosecutor would be appropriate,” Bromwich wrote. “Neither Dr. Blasey Ford nor Judge Kavanaugh is on trial.” -- “Mr. Kavanaugh’s actions, while many years ago, were serious and have had a lasting impact on my life,” Ford wrote in a private letter to Grassley, noting that she’s had to hire personal security guards and has spent “considerable time managing death threats.” “My original intent was first and foremost to be a helpful citizen – in a confidential way that would minimize collateral damage to all families and friends involved,” explained the Palo Alto University professor. “While I am frightened, please know, my fear will not hold me back from testifying and you will be provided with answers to all of your questions. I ask for fair and respectful treatment.” -- Kavanaugh wrote a letter of his own to Grassley, as well. “I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process,” he said.
The congressman continued, “Even if it’s all true, does it disqualify him? It certainly means that he did something really bad 36 years ago, but does it disqualify him from the Supreme Court?” The TV host, Chris Berg, noted that, if the allegations are indeed true, it would mean that Kavanaugh is lying. “If it’s found that he knew, that he recalls it, he knew it happened and lies about it, then I think that would disqualify him,” Cramer replied. -- Some on the left, meanwhile, see karma: “Kavanaugh was not only a part of special counsel Ken Starr’s investigation into President Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky; he was also one of the lead Torquemadas of it — zealous in the pursuit of his goal to the point of cruelty,” Helaine Olen writes on the PostPartisan blog. “Kavanaugh not only thought Clinton needed to be questioned about his relations with Lewinsky; he also wanted Clinton to be interrogated in the most detailed and specific way possible. He drew up a memo with a series of 10 sexually explicit questions about Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky. He claimed he wanted to establish Clinton had no defense for his ‘pattern of behavior.’ As a result, ‘[the] idea of going easy on him at the questioning is thus abhorrent to me,’ Kavanaugh wrote in the summer of 1998. To say that the questions Kavanaugh came up with for Clinton were prurient doesn’t do justice to the gross invasiveness and detail he sought.” (Read the memo for yourself.) “The questions Kavanaugh wanted to ask of Clinton — long before anyone went public with allegations against him — are clear proof there is a side to Kavanaugh that many of his defenders, both male and female, do not want to acknowledge,” Olen adds. “Now that he faces not one, but two accusations of misconduct, he deserves every question that comes his way, no matter how invasive. What goes around comes around.” -- HOW IT’S PLAYING:
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