Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh has recently been accused of sexual misconduct. This accusation comes from an unnamed source and the incident occurred over 30 years ago when everyone involved were minors. In a letter to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) the accuser asserts that during a party at which the kids were drinking Kavanaugh held her down and tried to force himself on her. A friend of Kavanaugh's was in the room and apparently turned up the music in the room to mask the sound of her protests. The young lady was eventually able to free herself and escape. In this case Kavanaugh has denied the incident ever happened and the friend supposedly in the room stated "I have no recollection of that.”.

While every woman with a complaint of sexual misconduct should be listened to, every accused deserved the right to a defense. Not being a lawyer and with the limited information that has been released about the incident, there seems to be several questions that need to be answered before this accusation should be taken seriously:

• Kavanaugh and his friend were drinking, was the young lady drinking also? Did she have enough to drink that her identification of the two young men accused could be drawn into question? Memory can change over time, especially after over 30 years when the original event may have been clouded with the use of alcohol.
• How many people were at the party and who were some potential witnesses that could support her accusation?
• Did the incident occur in the main room of the party or in a separate back room with only the three of them present? If it was in a back room, what were the circumstances the led to one young lady being in a secluded room with two young men?
• How was she able to free herself from the two young men? Did she say anything to anyone else at the party after she freed herself? How long did she remain at the party after the incident?

Most young men, after being told "No" or having a hand brushed away on a date have gone back for a second or third try. Those that haven't may still be virgins today. This would make it possible for a very large percentage of women to make the statement "I was almost raped by him".

Forget that the incident happened over thirty years ago, that everyone involved were minors, and memories could have been clouded by alcohol. The lady now does not want to identify herself but still wants to make the claim. Judge Kavanaugh and his friend have both denied the incident took place. If this is true, they would have no idea who the young lady was. The Sixth Amendment guarantees anyone accused of a crime has the right "to be confronted with the witnesses against him". Judge Kavanaugh is being denied his constitutional right to face his accuser.

How the statement was handled also tells us something. Congresswoman Eshoo and Senator Feinstein were given the account of the incident in July. Congresswoman Eshoo apparently did nothing. Senator Feinstein just recently made the statement public and forwarded it to the FBI for investigation. The FBI response was to put it in his background file with no investigation. It appears very little credence was given to the statement.

This could be a repeat performance of the Clearance Thomas-Anita Hill saga. Initially Ms. Hill did not want to go public with the accusations but eventually did resulting in the very controversial confirmation of Judge Thomas. This is probably a last minute effort by Democrats to delay the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh.

Since the accusation, the Judiciary Committee has received a letter from 65 women that have known Kavanaugh since high school. The letter vouches for Judge Kavanaugh as a "good" person. The letter starts with the statement

We are women who have known Brett Kavanaugh for more than 35 years and knew him while he attended high school between 1979 and 1983. For the entire time we have known Brett Kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect.

So we are left with the choice of believing the one woman accusing Judge Kavanaugh or the 65 women attesting to his character. I think I will side with the 65 women.

This accusation does not deserve the publicity it has received. How deep are we going to dig into the life of people to make accusations? What's next, a charge of sexual misconduct because someone was breast fed longer than normal? Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation vote is scheduled for September 20th, it's time for the Senate to get him appointed and move on to more pressing matters.