Sorry, Zen. Feel better.

But what if it were true and he admitted it happened, but says he was 17 and drunk and felt regret and never did anything like that again?

If he were the type to admit guilt and apologize, he would've done it already. IME there's never "only one time" with these arrogant entitled men; they'll keep doing it as long as they keep getting away with it, which they always do. Somewhere out there is a girl who didn't get away from him. Probably more than one.

I agree with Emily Bazelon's take (which she articulated on the Gabfest, not sure if there's a written version) - more or less that we should take into account that he was a minor at the time and unless more women come forward to demonstrate a pattern of behavior extending into adulthood (which has not happened, yet), one criminal act as a minor should not be an automatic disqualification. What SHOULD be an automatic disqualification is that he is now, at age 53, lying about it to Congress and to the American public, which is unacceptable behavior both in general and especially for a federal judge and REALLY REALLY ESPECIALLY for a Supreme Court Justice.

It wasn't awkward teen sex, it was pretty unambiguously rape.

And this isn't a trial, it's a job interview. He's a fucking SCOTUS nominee. He should be held to a higher standard. The HIGHEST standard. SCOTUS judges should be SQUEAKY CLEAN.

^^^^^This. I can't say it any better.

If he were the type to admit guilt and apologize, he would've done it already.

Even if he does it now, his FIRST response was to lie about it. Repeatedly. That ship sailed within the first 24 hours after Dr Ford came forward.

What SHOULD be an automatic disqualification is that he is now, at age 53, lying about it to Congress and to the American public, which is unacceptable behavior both in general and especially for a federal judge and REALLY REALLY ESPECIALLY for a Supreme Court Justice.

This. Absolutely this.

If he is lying about it now, yes, that should disqualify him.

As to whether something he did in High School should disqualify him, this is a lifetime appointment to a place that will determine the rights we all have going forward. SO FUCK YES. Ahem. This society holds women and minorities responsible for youthful actions all the time so fix that and judge them by the standard we judge rich white males.

I believe her. She's still paying for his actions.

Also, when I worked in CA I knew about Kozinski, so he's lying about that, too, I believe.

Yeah, it's the lying and the cover-ups that definitively disqualify him. While I am not inclined to be forgiving about attempted rape, I could maybe let it go because he was a foolish youth. But everything else about his behavior tells me he's not a good man who did something bad long ago; he's a bad guy, then and now.

This society holds women and minorities responsible for youthful actions all the time so fix that and judge them by the standard we judge rich white males.

I really strongly disagree with this. If we want to remove the double standard at play, this response justifies the wrong side of it.

Given the fact that the Supreme Court is frequently ruling on things that affect my entire gender, I feel pretty comfortable excluding someone who's behaved that way towards a woman. I mean, boo fucking hoo, asshole.

I'm really angry about the whole thing, though. And I'm also about to kill my coworker, who is sharing her screen with me AND reading me the multi-paragraph email draft that I can see.