Judge Brett Kavanaugh as an out-of-control Irish drunk is a very unfair portrait of a man under extraordinary duress.
Mark Judge's description of a drunk Irish character "Bart O' Kavanaugh" has become a standard meme about the entire issue,
“Do you know Bart O’Kavanaugh? I heard he puked in someone’s car the other night.” ..."Yeah, he passed out on his way back from a party.”
It is fictional and does little justice to the would-be Supreme Court justice who, in his testimony, was mostly recounting teenage years and drunken weekends with his friends.
There is no doubt that Judge Kavanagh liked and likes beer -- he made that perfectly clear in his testimony which verged on the bizarre at times as he queried senators whether they liked beer too.
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Few of us would welcome the bright spotlight on our teen years when our behavior was almost genetically dialed in to drinking and partying.
Called to account for those years we would all blush and fumble with words to describe what excesses many of us took part in. Drinking contests, beer pong, drunken arguments sometimes fights, mark me down your honor.
Kavanaugh took the wrong track trying to play down his obviously drunken behavior. No one was buying his attempt at looking like an altar boy and certainly his attempt to explain away some of the drinking games was very poorly thought through.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018, in Washington, DC. Credit: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
One can see how reflexively he was trying to protect both himself and his family but he would have been far better off being honest.
There is another side. Forgotten too easily is the testimony of countless friends and co-workers and 65 females that Kavanaugh clearly sobered up as he became older and became a loving husband and father. There were innumerable acts of kindness such as acting as a substitute father for a daddy/daughter dance where a young girl’s father had passed away.
He was a coach, a fine boss if the evidence of his co-workers is to be believed, and he was clearly an incredible legal scholar.
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These facts are irrefutable, irrespective of the charge against him of sexual attack on a young 15-year-old. If he did that, he deserves jail and a long sentence. There can be no mercy.
Calling him out for being a young drunk is far less relevant to this case.
Brett Kavanaugh, the man in full, must be examined. He is not some stereotypical Irish drunk but a contender for the Supreme Court. His entire background, good and bad, needs to be examined by the FBI for clues to his behavior, not just the hard-drinking stereotype.
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