Round and round it goes, the 2018 version of the Washington Merry-Go-Round.
Washington Merry-Go-Round is a term made famous by the late columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, a couple of muckraking journalists who kept the wheel spinning more than four decades by exposing humorous and frightful happenings in Congress and the White House.
The current Washington Merry-Go-Round began spinning last week when a then unidentified woman claimed she’d been sexually assaulted by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. She alleged that a drunken Kavanaugh climbed on top of her inebriated body and attempted to strip her clothes off and fondle her privates. She further alleged that he even put his hands over her mouth when she attempted to scream for help.
That happened in the early 1980s, she alleged, when the two of them were attending a party being thrown by fellow high school students.
The story broke after U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, turned over documents containing the alleged attack to committee chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican. Grassley had scheduled a vote on the Kavanaugh nomination this week, and his initial reaction was why did Feinstein sit on the allegations throughout Kavanaugh’s nomination hearings.
Grassley also questioned why the alleged victim didn’t identify herself.
Kavanaugh supporters gave the merry-go-round a spin by contending the alleged sexual accusations were nothing more than a smokescreen to delay the committees scheduled vote on the nomination.
That gave Senate Democrats an opportunity to hop on the ride. The allegations must be taken seriously, Democrats said. The vote must be postponed until the committee has an opportunity to question Kavanaugh and the still unidentified person.
The back and forth chatter continued throughout the weekend, gaining momentum when the alleged victim identified herself in story published in the Sunday edition of The Washington Post. She’s Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in Palo Alto, California. Her attorney said Ford was prepared to appear before the Judicial Committee to tell her story and answer questions under oath.
Ford also alleged that Mark Judge, a high school classmate of Cavanaugh’s, was in the room when the alleged assault happened. Calls for a delay shifted from a cat’s meow to a lion’s roar. Grassley cancelled the vote and scheduled a meeting Monday to hear Ford’s testimony.
The Merry-Go-Round took another spin Tuesday when Ford’s attorney said the professor wouldn’t testify before the committee until the FBI conducted a thorough investigation of the allegations. The FBI doesn’t plan to investigate, noting the alleged incident happened more than 30 years ago and that it isn’t the type crime the bureau investigates.
Meanwhile in writing, Judge notified Judicial Committee members that he doesn’t plan to testify before the committee. Judge pointed out that he “didn’t ask to be involved in this matter nor did anyone ask me to be involved.” Judge also said he doesn’t have any memory of the alleged attack.
“More to the point,” Judge wrote, “I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes. I have no more information to provide the committee and I do not wish to speak publicly regarding the incidents described in Dr. Ford’s letter.”
But Grassley’s Monday committee meeting remains scheduled. Where the Washington Merry-Go-Round stops this time remains a mystery.
Anderson and Pearson would’ve loved to be on the spin.
