It is very hard to specify what is the worst thing about the way the Kavanaugh/Ford hearings played out. Is the worst part the fact that a nakedly partisan Republican infighter has been elevated to the SCOTUS while warning the rest of us that “what goes around comes around”? Is it the fact that the people on the Justice committee in the Senate will be spitting at each other until they die? Or is it this: the Republicans claim to find Ford “credible”, but they think she’s mixed up. Something bad happened to her, but the whole Brett Kavanaugh bit is a huge mistake. Hey, she was traumatized, so why wouldn’t she make a little mistake like that? Yeah. Anybody who has ever been assaulted has been through a traumatic experience. So, anyone who ever claims to have been assaulted can expect to be treated in exactly this way by Republicans when it matters. Something bad happened to you! So we’ll decide what it was or wasn’t, since you, having had a bad experience, are obviously in no shape to make any statements about reality that we should feel obliged to listen to. We understand, you’re upset…. To me, that’s the worst.

Kuhn is a member of the class of 1979.