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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'll Never Forget Brett Kavanaugh's Anger
I saw a frightening side of him in 1998. I saw it again at the Christine Blasey Ford hearing 20 years later.
By Judi Hershman
Nov. 5, 2018 6:20 PM
Back in the 1990s, when my last name was Nardella, I was a mother of two living in a Virginia suburb of Washington, working as a Republican fundraiser. Through community engagement and charity work, I met Alice and Ken Starr. The Starrs, in turn, introduced me to the head of a Dallas-based strategic communications firm, Merrie Spaeth, and around 1997, Spaeth hired me to run her boutique D.C. office. Starr was then serving as the independent counsel investigating the relationship between Bill Clinton and a White House intern, and in 1998, Spaeth and I were charged with helping prep Starr to present his history-making report to Congress. In the course of our work, I met one of his teams key lawyers, 33-year-old Brett Kavanaugh.
One day, after a group meeting in the independent counsels offices, I was alone in the conference room, walking around the table and gathering up materials. The door opened, and someone came in. I dont believe I looked up to see who it wasI just assumed that somebody had forgotten something. In what seemed like a split second, Kavanaugh had come around to my side of the table and was invading my space, badgering me in a way that I didnt understand. I changed directions around the table and kept moving. He followed on my heels.
Heres how I remember our interaction:
Him (very angry): You are going to tell me exactly who you are and why you are here.
Me: I am here at the invitation of Judge Starr, and he shared with the group who I am and why Im here.
Him (pointing a finger in my face, I can feel his breath): No. Im telling you
Me (defiant stance): And Im telling you to go talk to Judge Starr.
I didnt know what prompted the confrontation at the time, and I still dont. He couldnt have possibly thought I was a spy, because he knew who I waswe had met before and been in each others company several times since.
https://amp.slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/brett-kavanaugh-ken-starr-heidi-heitkamp-republican-campaign-democrat.html
2naSalit
(86,515 posts)it tends to affect those who are dealing in dishonesty and treason.
On the nose. No other explanation. Rational, mature people don't act that way...
appleannie1943
(1,303 posts)dhol82
(9,352 posts)I grew up in Philly. Had a friend who came from a well off family. I was a nobody.
He invited me to a pool party at the Spaeth house. It was on the Main Line and a freaking spectacular house. Think Philadelphia Story.
We were having a perfectly nice afternoon until she showed up.
I am assuming she had the hots for my friend because she got so pissy assed. Although, it would have been surprising since my friend was Jewish and her family was soooooo white.
Anyhow, we left shortly thereafter.
I do not have a great regard for Merrie.
This must have been just before the movie was released.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_of_Henry_Orient
alittlelark
(18,890 posts)Kavanaugh Denies Knowledge of Stolen Democratic Memos
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/kavanaugh-manny-miranda-leahy/
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,841 posts)Those are the kind of encounters that say volumes about a person.
Here's one about a politician that says volumes about what a good man he is.
I used to work at National Airport in Washington DC as a ticket counter agent. Some time in the late 1970's a very tall man came up, kind of leaned down (I'm fairly short) and asked if I could please make changes in his ticket and reservations, because he and his wife were on this trip and now she was going to have to skip two or three of the next flights and then they'd resume travel together. That's exactly the kind of changes, splitting up a joint reservation and creating two separate ones midway through the journey that was quite tricky back then. But of course I'd do it. "Last name?" I asked.
"Rockefeller," was the reply. This tall man was Jay Rockefeller, then Governor of West Virginia. He didn't send some flunky to the ticket counter to take care of this. Nope. He did it by himself. He was kind and sweet and patient -- it really was a complicated thing to do, or it was back then.
I am very sorry he never wound up running for President.
tavernier
(12,375 posts)Usually first thing in the morning. He was a heavy, heavy drinker, though.