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Kavanaugh's no-holds-barred pursuit of Clinton, which was denounced by Democrats as part of a partisan witch hunt by congressional Republicans, sounds painfully ironic now that Kavanaugh's own nomination to the Supreme Court is threatened by a charge of sexual misconduct.

His nomination was zipping along on what appeared to be a fast track to a confirmation vote this week before Christine Blasey Ford blew into the picture. Now a research psychologist at Palo Alto University in California, she went public with her identity and charges in a Washington Post interview Sunday.

During a house party in the early 1980s when they were in high school in suburban Washington, she said, a drunken Kavanaugh had pinned her on a bed, groped her and covered her mouth to keep her from screaming as he tried to remove her clothing. "I thought he might inadvertently kill me," the Post quoted her as saying. She escaped, she said, when a close Kavanaugh friend drunkenly fell on top of both of them.

Kavanaugh vigorously denied the allegations, and President Donald Trump stood by him in remarks that were notably missing even a hint of his usual bluster. Even his critique of the other party sounded unusually subdued. "I wish the Democrats could have done this a lot sooner because they had this information for many months," Trump told reporters at the White House. "And they shouldn't have waited until literally the last days. They should have done it a lot sooner."

That would have been nice. But even a little knowledge of the bruising that Anita Hill went through in 1991 in her testimony against Clarence Thomas, who eventually was confirmed to the Supreme Court anyway, should explain why Ford, like Hill, might have been more than a little reluctant to come forward.

At least, thanks partly to Hill, and later movements like #MeToo, allegations of sexual misconduct have earned more respect. With pivotal midterm elections looming, it might not seem like a fair time to hold sensitive Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

But then, political accountability appears to be what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they left judicial appointment to a political process.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)

(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.