Brett Kavanaugh cried during the Senate investigation. Brett Kavanaugh’s emotional breakdown had its roots in his overwhelming guilt for a criminal assault of a defenseless teenage woman. Brett Kavanaugh’s impassioned denial of any wrong doing reflected a distraught person who could not accept the truth of his painful history. Brett Kavanaugh has been characterized by many persons as a decent person. Yet a man whose life history has been scared by past years of delinquent behavior. The angst that he displayed at the Senate hearings was not a denial of the truth of Christine Ford’s account, but rather an anguished attempt to suppress his guilt. Mr. Kavanaugh can be damned for his lie, but Brett Kavanaugh deserves our sympathy and even our empathy. Empathy for a man who should have never allowed himself to be in contention for a Supreme Court appointment. Perhaps a feeling of entitlement, a need for recognition, or approval allowed him to accept the nomination. Whatever his motives or other influences, he ignored the possibility that his blemished history would become public.
Brett Kavanaugh was ill prepared to cope with the revelations of that abusive history. A man who under ordinary circumstances could cope with the normal stresses of life. The demands of the Senate investigation and the charges that he faced were not normal, and beyond his coping skills. Brett was incapable of controlling his despair, and terror. Brett could not suppress his anguish. Brett was hostile, oppositional, and outright rude. He had no choice but to lie. Brett Kavanaugh may become a Supreme Court justice, but he will never forgive himself. He will forever be tormented by his guilt.