But what of our nice Republican white lady, Sen. Susan Collins, the woman the entire political world, including Democrats, has put on a pedestal for years as the representation of modest, feminine moderation? Trump was effusive in his compliments after her speech -- and her vote to confirm Kavanaugh. He told the press, "I thought that Susan was incredible yesterday. She gave an impassioned, beautiful speech yesterday. And that was from the heart, that was from the heart."

He was referring to the speech in which Collins gaslighted the entire country with a paean to a man who doesn't exist, calling him “an exemplary public servant, judge, teacher, coach, husband and father.” She told the entire country that the real Brett Kavanaugh was not the angry, petulant, bully they watched testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She whitewashed his record on health care and women's rights, insisting that the man who just months ago, as a federal appeals court judge, voted to force a 17-year-old rape victim to give birth against her will, was not a threat to Roe vs Wade.

She attacked the protesters complaining about "dark money" being used to whip them into a "frenzy." Worst of all, she adopted the absurd line that while she believed Christine Blasey Ford had likely suffered an attack, Kavanaugh was not the attacker. This has become the "empathetic" approach among Republicans who can read polls and see that women are running from the party as fast as they can.

But this line is nothing new. Women have been told they were "crazy" when they say things that people don't want to hear since the beginning of time. And the echoes of the cruder formulation deployed against Anita Hill back in 1991 -- "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty" -- are obvious. It's progress, I suppose, that they dropped the "slutty" part in 2018.