Where The Fuck Was Mark Judge?

Probably doing whatever bitter preppy ex-jocks do on weekdays. Fishing? Reading comics? Who gives two shits?

Did you guys notice anyone missing from yesterday's split-personality hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee? Why, yes, that would have been Brett Kavanaugh's high school pal and partner in dissipation, Mark Judge, who was identified by Christine Blasey Ford as having been in the room during Kavanaugh's attempt to rape her in 1982. Judge was a central figure in Dr. Blasey's testimony against Kavanaugh, and in the gang rape claims against both men by Julie Swetnick, who was unpersoned altogether by the committee.

But Republicans decided there was no need to investigate or hear testimony from Judge. After all, as Kavanaugh mentioned several thousand times during his Rage 'n' Wrath testimony, Judge had already submitted a letter attesting he knew nothing about nothing, so that's all the information the committee needed. Then yesterday, after Blasey's testimony, Judge sent another letter saying he didn't know nothing and nothing ever happened, so how's that for a mountain of information, huh?

It was definitely enough for the Republicans, who voted AGAIN this morning against issuing a subpoena for Judge to testify. After that, chair Chuck Grassley pushed through a vote on moving the nomination out of committee (first procedural vote at 1: 30 today). Democratic Senators Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono, Dick Durbin, and Richard Blumenthal -- who'd moved to subpoena Judge -- all walked out in disgust.

Blasey identified Judge as not merely an onlooker but an ambivalent participant in the attempted rape. By the time she arrived at the party, she said, both Judge and Kavanaugh were already "visibly drunk." She wasn't sure who pushed her from behind into an upstairs bedroom or who turned up the music to drown out her calls for help, but she remembers both boys "drunkenly laughing during the attack. They seemed to be having a very good time." And unlike Kavanaugh, Judge at least appeared to notice she was human, maybe:

Mark seemed ambivalent, at times urging Brett on and at times telling him to stop. A couple of times, I made eye contact with Mark and thought he might try to help me, but he did not.

Blasey also testified that she'd seen Judge working at a supermarket a few weeks after the event, and that she said hello to him.

"His face was white and very uncomfortable saying 'hello' back."

She added, "He was just nervous and not really wanting to speak with me, and he looked a little bit ill."

Judge had written in his memoir that he'd worked at the market for only a few weeks -- but nah, no need to find out when, exactly, although that would help fix when the assault occurred. And as multiple people on Twitter have noted, Judge's book puts the lie to Kavanaugh's insistence that the boys never would have gotten drunk on a weeknight:

But golly, who needs to ask Mark Judge any questions when he's already submitted a six-sentence letter to the committee? This is surely the equivalent of an investigation and in-person testimony, is it not?

He said he doesn't have anything more to say, and doesn't want to say anything, so obviously his testimony could add nothing at all. Just to underline the point, Judge sent a second letter to the committee after Blasey testified, and it adds considerably to our understanding of the incident:

You have to be nice to him. He's an alcoholic, and therefore testifying would be really stressful to him, and he has nothing to add, OK? Dr. Blasey's testimony was traumatic for her, but she had to suck it up and get through it, because she was the accuser and a tool of the Democratic conspiracy. Although if you want to get technical about it, she had done all she could to bring her claims forward well before Kavanaugh was even nominated. 

Judge certainly couldn't have added anything beyond his letter. Except maybe to respond to the comments of former girlfriend Elizabeth Rasor, as published in the  New Yorker , in reply to Kavanaugh's insistence that Georgetown Prep lads never ever did anything untoward with girls, heavens no:

Rasor recalled that Judge had told her ashamedly of an incident that involved him and other boys taking turns having sex with a drunk woman. Rasor said that Judge seemed to regard it as fully consensual. She said that Judge did not name others involved in the incident, and she has no knowledge that Kavanaugh participated. But Rasor was disturbed by the story and noted that it undercut Judge's protestations about the sexual innocence of Georgetown Prep. (Barbara Van Gelder, an attorney for Judge, said that he "categorically denies" the account related by Rasor. Van Gelder said that Judge had no further comment.)

Oh, well. He categorically denied it, so nothing useful would have come out of his testimony. Please move on and welcome this wonderful man to the Supreme Court.

And vote. Work to end this Republican majority -- while we still can.

[ Atlantic / CBS News / WaPo / NYT / New Yorker ]

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