The fools should do the right thing and suffer through an apology

SAN DIEGO -- Brett Kavanaugh is owed an apology.

Another one. He already got one this week from President Trump because of how badly the judge was treated during his Supreme Court confirmation process.

"On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure," Trump said Kavanaugh's swearing-in ceremony.

Senate Democrats should follow Trump's lead.

Don't misunderstand. Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee don't have to apologize for being tough, partisan and critical. That's their job, and much of this fits into the definition of advise and consent. Besides a degree of friction and even acrimony is to be expected when someone is nominated for a high post by a president of the opposing party.

But Democrats went far beyond that. They should apologize to Kavanaugh for being dishonest, hypocritical, devious and hostile as they attempted to short-circuit his testimony. Go back and look at the tape, and you'll see that Democrats didn't fight fair. They cut off the nominee, wouldn't let him fully answer questions, didn't allow him to give context, twisted his words, badgered him with the same questions over and over -- like the ones about his drinking. They made the hearings all about themselves, and they showed scant interest in figuring out what happened to Christine Blasey Ford more than 30 years ago.

For the Democrats, the confirmation hearings were simply a massive game of "gotcha." Most of the questions seemed designed to trip up Kavanaugh. If they succeeded, at the very least, Democrats would have embarrassing video to use in their fundraising commercials for the midterm elections. And if they were really lucky, they might get the judge to contradict himself.

Most of all, Democrats need to apologize to Kavanaugh for unfairly holding him to a higher standard than they have previously held Democratic Senate colleagues. At various times during the proceedings, as I heard veteran Democratic senators -- Dianne Feinstein, Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy and Sheldon Whitehouse -- rise to defend the honor of every woman in America, I had to remind myself that all four of them served alongside the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, whose reported serial womanizing would be unacceptable today.

And how surreal was it that Kavanaugh's persecutors would include Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who, while attending graduate school at Stanford in 1992, wrote an op-ed for the university newspaper in which he revealed that -- eight years earlier, when he was 15 -- he had sexually assaulted a female friend by grabbing her breast without her permission? For what it's worth -- and it's probably worth more to Democrats than to Republicans -- Booker claims that he wrote the op-ed in order to draw attention to the problem of sexual assault and to call for greater respect toward women.

Democrats also need to apologize to Kavanaugh for their poor social skills and conversational rapport. They were repeatedly combative, insulting, condescending, accusatory, and dismissive of the nominee.

But when he gave them a small taste of their own medicine, they immediately took offense.

As the anti-Trump media became the anti-Kavanaugh media, the narrative emerged that Kavanaugh was way out of line when he, with a smile and a gentle tone, engaged in a banter with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on whether she had ever blacked out from drinking.

Klobuchar responded that she doesn't have a drinking problem. Kavanaugh said he didn't either.

This was the whole point of the exchange. People have a right to ask:

If Democrats can drink an occasional beer without it being assumed that they have a drinking problem, why don't we afford the same benefit of the doubt to Republicans?

Kavanaugh eventually apologized to Klobuchar. Case closed.

But here's what was left unresolved. Senators of both parties have to decide whether they're royalty or regular folks. When they're in Washington, they act like monarchs who are above reproach by commoners. But when they're back home -- glad-handing at the fish fry or chili contest or menudo cook-off -- why, they're just like you and me.

During his interrogation, I think Brett Kavanaugh showed a lot of class, patience and self-control. He also proved that he has the ability to suffer fools.

Now the fools should do the right thing and suffer through an apology.

========

Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.