Brett Kavanaugh ate my hamster!

They are all coming out of the woodwork now, people with memories of Brett Kavanaugh. He beat someone up in a bar, he once said boo to the next door neighbour, he drank so much he couldn't stand up straight for hours, he drove through a red light when he was 18, he killed someone's rabbit by mistake and, yes, he ate my hamster. Some of these things may be true but others are made up and silly. For those confused by my hamster story, you will need to become familiar with one of the UK Sun newspaper's most quixotic front-page headline of many years ago which was: "Freddie Starr ate my hamster". (Freddie Starr was/is a comedian). It was a daft story but the headline was hilarious. The trouble with the Kavanaugh story is that anyone who has ever known the judge, going back to his infancy, will now come forward with likely or unlikely tales of misbehaviour which, when put together, will turn him into some sort of lifelong monster. Everyone on the planet has done something in his or her life which, if made public, could look pretty bad. Kavanaugh is going to be hit by an avalanche of smut and disloyalty from so-called friends. But as the newspapers fill up with the latest denunciations from the past, it should be emphasised that the real story is quite simple. Can he be trusted to hold one of the most prestigious and influential roles in the American justice system? Does he tell the truth or does he lie under pressure? Does he have compassion, far-sightedness and wondrous judgment? Key to the answers to these questions has to be the alleged sexual assault of Christine Blasey Ford when she was 15 and he was 17. The incident was more than 35 years ago but still a terrifying memory in Professor Ford's mind. She said she is 100 per cent certain the man who attacked her on a bed with the bedroom door locked was Kavanaugh. If she is telling the truth and nothing but the truth, then Kavanaugh is lying. There is no more important a sentence than that! If he is lying, then he must not be confirmed as a judge for the US Supreme Court. Never mind whether he got drunk a lot in his youth or was aggressive when inebriated, although these images paint a picture of an adolescent jerk. A lot of people got and still get drunk and behave badly. Even judges in their prime. But it's the accusation of lying that will stick, IF Kavanaugh knows he is not telling the truth about an incident more than three decades ago. Oh and by the way I don't want to read any more stories, ever, about Kavanaugh allegedly waiving his "genitalia" in front of a young woman at another party. That's the act of a stupid lout full of himself and full of drink. Inexcusable but let's concentrate on Christine Blasey Ford's story. The FBI will waste a lot of time if they go around interviewing every Kavanaugh classmate who has tittle tattle about his past high school antics. If Kavanaugh is found by the FBI to be lying and he repeats the lie to the FBI investigators, that's a federal offence. End of Kavanaugh's career.