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In 1991, after the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to comply with Anita Hill's sexual harassment complaint against Clarence Thomas, she reopened the confirmation hearings. The result was a show of Senators' accusations and cross-charges while they seemed locked in their partisan views without considering the facts.
"Anita Hill will be yearned for by the thing she wanted to avoid the most," said Senator Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican who supported Thomas, when Hill's complaint went public for the first time. "She will be wounded and destroyed and degraded and hunted and harassed, a real harassment, different from the sexual genre.Just the old harassment of the Washington variety, which is quite unique in itself."
Simpson probably was not referring to the Judiciary Committee he sat on, nor to the grills he would give to Hill a few days later. But that's what many people have done Hill's attack and what has become a defining cultural moment, leading to a record number of women elected to Congress a year later.
Now that Christine Blasey Ford has alleged that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her three decades ago, the persistent shortcomings of the committee are obvious.
The chairman of the committee, Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, gave Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, until Friday at 10 am to say if she would testify before the committee. She first requested an investigation from the FBI on her request. Democratic senators support this demand and also insist that other witnesses be called.
Ford seems to be in a winless situation.
Senators are supporters, without any mechanism that would seem neutral to hear such allegations. It remains to be seen whether there will be a real attempt at truth because the life of the accuser and the accused has turned into caricatures.
Any possible hearing, as well as the fate of Kavanaugh's appointment, will likely be more politicized than Hill-Thomas's 1991 clash due to increased polarization in Washington and the upcoming mid-term elections.
Similarities between yesterday and today
Even separated by 27 years and with a transformed committee, several similarities exist between the Thomas and Kavanaugh confirmations. On both occasions, the women laid confidential charges before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senators were slow to act, and the charges were made public by leaks and reports.
Situations turned to chaos.
Hill, who is also a professor at Brandeis University, said she worked for Thomas in the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Commission, and harassed her about pornography and sex. references to women's breasts and penises. The members of the Judiciary Committee were aware of Hill's complaint, but did not seek his testimony until the information she provided to the committee staff was reported.
Ford alleges that at a private party in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh pushed her into a room and tried to pull off her clothes. She said that when she tried to scream, he covered her mouth.
Ford's July 30 letter detailing his allegations against Kavanaugh, a 12-year veteran of a major US court of appeal, had been handed over to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, but the senior official of the Judiciary Committee publicly acknowledged the letter and forwarded it to the FBI. only last week.
Responding to criticism of the delay, especially from President Donald Trump, Feinstein wrote Wednesday on Twitter that Ford "did not want her sexual assault story to be public." She asked for confidentiality and I told her that she has decided to introduce herself.You may not respect the women and the wishes of the victims, but I do it. "
Kavanaugh issued statements categorically denouncing Ford 's accusation and stated that he had "never done anything like what the accuser describes – to her or to anyone ".
Committee in process
In 1991, as now, the question is how the committee resolves an allegation against a candidate for a lifetime appointment to the highest US court. Trump chose Kavanaugh to succeed retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, a centrist conservative who voted for an ideologically divided court.
The second series of hearings for Thomas became a forum for something other than facts and to get to the truth. Republican senators questioned Hill's motives and memories. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who is one of three senators who served on the committee in 1991 and remains today, suggested that Hill had concocted some of his demands, including taking details from book "The Exorcist".
For his part, Thomas categorically denied Hill's claims and described the proceedings as "circus" as well as "high-tech lynching". His appointment was approved 52-48.
Contrary to what is happening now, the Democrats were running the Judiciary Committee and the then President, Joe Biden, refused to call other women who claimed to have similar related experiences before the Committee. to Thomas. The sexually charged nature of the ordeal, combined with racial elements missing from the episode of today, seemed to overwhelm the committee. At the end of last year, Biden said he had an apology to Hill.
"That the Senate Judiciary Committee still does not have a protocol to verify sexual harassment and the allegations of aggression appearing at a confirmation hearing suggest that the committee learned little from Thomas, let alone the recent #MeToo movement, "Hill writes.
Committee blame game
President Grassley pointed out that with or without Ford's testimony, he would request a vote in committee next week to send Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate. The committee is made up of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats – just as the Senate has a weak Republican majority of 51-49.
Grassley and Feinstein exchanged accusations throughout Kavanaugh's selection process, and in a letter Wednesday night, Grassley blamed him for the state of play. "You chose to sit on the allegations until a politically appropriate moment," he said. "I can not exaggerate how much I am disappointed with this decision, which has forced me to reopen the hearings for the fifth day of testimony, whereas we could – and should – have raised these issues before or during first four days of the hearing. "
Noting that Feinstein said that she wanted to protect Ford's anonymity, Grassley said the allegations could have been made against him or Kavanaugh while protecting Ford's identity.
A day earlier, Feinstein had noted other mistakes by Republicans, who suggested that Ford might have confused Kavanaugh with another teenager.
"Well, that's really what Mr. Too is, is not it?" she told CNN's Manu Raju. "It's kind of the first thing that comes in. It's the woman's fault. It's not the woman's fault."
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