Key Revelations From Mark Judge's Addiction Memoir, 'Wasted'

Blackouts. Beach week. Bacchanalia. A pivotal job as a bag boy at a grocery store. When Mark Judge wrote Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk in 1997, he could hardly have imagined it would be scrutinized, two decades later, in consideration of his football- and drinking buddy Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation.

Judge’s addiction memoir provides a vivid backdrop of fast times at Georgetown Prep — offering outsiders a lens through which to interpret his and Kavanaugh’s alleged interaction with Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of a teenage sexual assault, with Judge an alleged witness. (Kavanaugh has categorically denied Ford’s charges. Judge has said, “I have no memory of this alleged incident.”)

Wasted also chronicles Judge’s frequent, self-described alcoholic blackouts — and his fears of what he was unable to remember. Judge writes of being “terrified of what I could have done” during one post-high school bender. The book colors Judge’s reliability as an alibi for Kavanaugh. Judge has reportedly been cooperating with the FBI in its renewed background investigation of the nominee.

(Judge has also written to the Senate Judiciary committee that he “categorically” denies the allegations of Julie Swetnick, who has accused Judge and Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting incapacitated women: “I have never engaged in gang rape of any woman, including Ms. Swetnick,” Judge wrote. “Even while suffering my addiction, I would remember actions so outlandish.” Kavanaugh has also forcefully denied Swetnick’s allegations.)

What follow are excerpts from Wasted that illuminate the student culture at Georgetown Prep during that era — and fill in some of the gaps in the timeline of the critical summer of 1982.

Light Fictionalization

Judge’s book uses pseudonyms for people, and even for the high school that Judge and Kavanaugh attended, which becomes “Loyola Prep.” An editor’s note describes Judge’s project: “This book is based on actual experiences. In some cases, the names and details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.”


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https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mark-judge-book-732229/