Eugene Robinson: Once again, GOP senators put women in their place

If Brett Kavanaugh is eventually confirmed to the Supreme Court, Republican senators will be sending a clear message to women who accuse powerful men of sexual misconduct: Tell your story if you must, then shut up and go away.

Kavanaugh’s histrionics and the parliamentary drama that followed do not lessen the clarity of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony or weaken her credibility. The limited FBI investigation now underway may provide Republicans with enough uncertainty and unanswered questions to provide political cover. But everyone should remember that Ford was as certain as she could possibly be.

She has not an ounce of doubt, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday, that it was a drunken Kavanaugh who pinned her to a bed, put his hand over her mouth and tried to rip her clothes off. Her recounting of that nightmare was vivid, detailed and specific. It was clear that she had not sought the public eye — she was “terrified” facing senators, she said — but felt she had a duty to report what Kavanaugh had done. I haven’t heard anyone claim she was anything but believable.

Which means she should be believed.

Women who make such credible allegations of sexual assault deserve not just to be heard — or patronized, as the committee’s GOP majority did to Ford — but trusted to speak truthfully.

The minute Kavanaugh launched into his rage-filled denial, any hint of belief in Ford’s story that might have crept into Republicans’ thinking was immediately dispelled. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and others began acting as Kavanaugh’s defense team rather than as neutral finders of fact.

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