Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall supports Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Marshall issued a statement on Tuesday (first reported by the Montgomery Advertiser) that says exactly that. He called the allegations against Kavanaugh “partisan politics.”
Let’s think about that a moment.
The attorney general for this state, without the benefit of hearing testimony from women who, by all accounts, appear to be credible individuals, has already dismissed the claims of these women and deemed it all a political sideshow.
The rest of the country, and even some Republican members of the Senate committee, are withholding judgment until testimony from one of those accusers is provided and the facts — such as they are — are on the table. But Alabama AG Steve Marshall has it all figured out and doesn’t need the evidence.
I bet if you’re a woman in this state, that must make you feel all warm and safe.
But then, it’s par for the course for Marshall.
Remember, this is the same man who resolved an incident in which one of his male employees violently sexually assaulted a female employee in his Marshall County District Attorney’s Office by moving the woman — the assault victim — to the basement.
Other Republicans around the state didn’t join Marshall.
Gov. Kay Ivey’s office, in a statement to the Advertiser, softened Ivey’s support for Kavanaugh and instead expressed confidence that the hearing process would produce the appropriate results.
Sen. Richard Shelby, who famously withdrew his support of then-Senate candidate Roy Moore, said he believed Kavanaugh’s accuser should be heard and also expressed confidence in the hearing process.
Which leaves Marshall with just one friend.
Roy Moore.
In a public statement last week, Moore announced his support of Kavanaugh and encouraged the embattled nominee to weather the storm and claimed that Democrats had “weaponized sexual assault allegations.”
Moore, like Marshall, also said the allegations, and the timing of the allegations, are “politically motivated.”
Two peas in a pod, that Moore and Marshall.
I’ve never understood the argument that the allegations are politically motivated because of their timing.
You mean the allegations were uncovered at a time when the alleged perpetrator is undergoing intense investigations, making it more likely that the victim’s account will be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated as part of a political process?
That’s not politically motivated. That’s a simple fact of life. A lot of dirty deeds stay covered up simply because no one bothers to look.
Is that the case with Kavanaugh — has his SCOTUS nomination, and the subsequent deep dive into his background, uncovered the dark secrets of a man with a deep character flaw?
I have no idea. But I find it highly unlikely that his alleged victim, a current college professor, would subject herself to death threats and public scorn if she didn’t have a real story to tell. And I also find it hard to believe that the senators and others with whom she shared her story would allow this process to move forward if they suspected she was making it all up.
But we’ll know on Thursday, when the accuser will tell her side and the accused will offer his defense.
Waiting on such a process to play out only seems fair to both sides. But particularly fair when you consider the #MeToo climate in which we currently live — a climate that has exposed an embarrassing number of sexual assaults and harassments by powerful men.
Some of those assaults were serial in nature, and they were facilitated by attitudes like Marshall’s, which sought out any available reason to discount, discredit or dismiss a woman’s allegation of harassment or assault.
If nothing else, holding Thursday’s hearing will prove to an entire generation of men that you can be held accountable for your actions, even decades later. That assault and harassment is not OK. That consent is an absolute must.
And that you can no longer just lock abused women in a basement and hope they go away.
