Christine Blasey Ford's testimony was devastating

Mitchell's effectiveness was undermined by the herky-jerky nature of the proceedings, shifting in five-minute increments between her courtroom style questioning on behalf of Republicans and testimonials to Ford's bravery by Democratic senators. Mitchell nibbled at the edges of Ford's story, with questions that suggested Ford had overstated her fear of flying to underscore the trauma of the alleged assault and that highlighted discrepancies between Ford's account and her therapist's notes.

But the questioning was mild by comparison to the skeptical interrogation of Hill 27 years ago, with suggestions that she was fantasizing and assertions she had committed perjury.

Back then senators were confronted between the quiet insistence of Hill's account and the ferocious, angry denial from Thomas, who famously denounced the "high-tech lynching."

I had expected Kavanaugh's response to be more measured, more respectful. But he came out swinging -- at the confirmation process in general and at Democrats in particular in a way that managed to make Thomas look timid by comparison.

The confirmation process had turned into a "national disgrace," Kavanaugh lectured senators, departing from his more restrained prepared remarks. "You have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy." He painted himself as the victim of an "orchestrated political hit" fueled, among other things, by desire for "revenge on behalf of the Clintons," whom Kavanaugh had investigated decades earlier.

As with Thomas all those years ago, Kavanaugh's denials were categorical, his anger volcanic. To watch both witnesses was to be left almost shell-shocked.

But it was also to be left with this fundamental question: One witness, Ford, wanted to see additional investigation to help reconcile the conflicting accounts. The other, Kavanaugh, repeatedly refused the invitation to ask for the FBI to reopen its probe. That, too, is an indelible takeaway from as searing a day as this city has witnessed in many decades.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.