Opinion: Fairness is not asking too much

There is also no serious issue about timing. Republicans have complained that if they delay a vote on Kavanaugh long enough to get an FBI report, it would put his final confirmation off until after the mid-terms, and they strongly object to that possibility.

There are two obvious problems with that complaint:

1.) It makes it sound as if Republicans are more concerned about the short-term political impact of a delay than they are about getting to the truth about a lifetime nominee to the Supreme Court. Surely, surely that is not the case.

2.) It is now Sept. 20. The mid-terms aren’t until Nov. 6. From beginning to end, the FBI investigation of Anita Hill’s charges took three days, and the number of subjects to be interviewed in the Kavanaugh case is smaller. An FBI investigation that begins immediately could be concluded in time for a committee hearing at the end of next week, at the latest the beginning of the following week. At that point, the mid-terms would still be a month away.

So as I said, I just don’t get it.

Senate Republicans apparently believe that they can strong-arm this through, that they have the votes to confirm Kavanaugh without allowing an FBI investigation.  If his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, refuses to testify in the absence of that investigation, as she has threatened to do, GOP leaders may believe that a bare majority of senators will still stick by Kavanaugh.

They may be right, but why? They can rush this through and leave themselves and Kavanaugh forever vulnerable to charges of unfairness, or they can take an extra week and allow an investigation, and by doing so they would make charges of unfairness much more difficult to sustain. The country will probably never agree on the outcome of this controversy, but it ought to be able to agree that the process had been fair.

A perception of fairness can bring political benefits as well. In the most recent Fox News poll, just 34 percent of female voters said that they intend to vote for Republican congressional candidates in the coming mid-terms. That poll was taken in August, well before these allegations surfaced against Kavanaugh.

Women of all political sentiments have experienced sexual harassment and assault or know of friends who have done so. If female voters see a Republican-run committee process that treats allegations of sexual assault fairly and seriously, that makes an honest effort to get as close to the truth as possible, they might be reassured even if that process concludes with Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

The converse is equally true: If they witness a process that treats Ford’s charges of sexual assault as simply an obstacle to be plowed through as quickly as possible, without serious investigation and a fair approach and with the conclusion already reached, it would cement that huge gender gap and have longstanding implications for the Republican Party.

We need a quick, honest investigation. Republicans need it, Democrats need it, the whole country needs it. We need to hear publicly from Kavanaugh, Ford and anyone else who might have pertinent information, and we need it conducted in a respectful process.

Then, armed with all available information, we can draw our conclusions.