Senator Mazie Hirono (shown, D-Hawaii), one of four women on the Senate Judiciary Committee, made her feelings quite clear this week on the issue of giving an accused man the benefit of the doubt — in fact, Hirono said the men in the country need to “just shut up and step up, do the right thing for a change.”
Hirono’s blunt remarks were in regard to the nomination of Appellate Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, particularly the allegations leveled against him by California college professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her back in high school.
“Not only do women like Dr. Ford, who bravely comes forward, need to be heard, but they need to be believed. They need to be believed. We cannot continue the victimization and the smearing of someone like Dr. Ford,” Hirono told reporters.
“We have to create an environment where women can come forward and be heard and be listened to. I want to thank Dr. Ford. I commend her courage. I believe her,” Hirono added.
Hirono has a 14-percent score on the Freedom Index, published by The New American, which rates members of Congress according to how their votes show fidelity to the U.S. Constitution.
Hirono even implied that reporters should slant their coverage in her favor. “I think we all know when something is not fair, when something smells. This is so patently not fair to her and what really bothers me and gets me so angry that the White House is victimizing this person.”
She continued, “Why don’t we get that out there?”
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Perhaps because the White House is not “victimizing” Ford.
But Hirono was clear that she was suggesting that the media should picture Ford as a victim of Kavanaugh. “Why should we participate in the victimization of someone who has the courage to come forward? And she is under no obligation to participate in a smearing of her and her family. That is why I am very clear about what needs to happen.”
Hirono added, “If the Republicans go forward with their plan to railroad this fast-track as they have so many other nominations, I expect the members of the press to talk about how unfair that is.”
To Hirono, this would not be something that should be left to the editorial page. “I don’t think that is editorializing, that is laying out the facts,” said Hirono, adding, “I expect that from you guys [the media].”
Hirono was asked about being one of four women on the committee, and whether it was a good thing to have the female perspective included on the committee as they examine the fitness of Judge Kavanaugh.
She responded, essentially reiterating that men are the bigger problem for the country, and that they need to just “shut up,” and kill the Kavanaugh nomination. “I expect the men of this country and the men in this committee because we all signed on to this letter to demand an FBI investigation. But really guess who is perpetuating all of these kinds of actions. It’s the men in this country.” So, in Hirono’s perspective, the problem is bigger than one appellate court judge, and it is even bigger than the Republican men on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is all the men in the country that are the problem.
And what can men do to possibly redeem themselves? Hirono concluded, “And I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up, do the right thing for a change.”
Apparently, the right thing to Hirono, based on a fair reading of her words, is for the men on the committee to just “shut up,” and vote down the Kavanaugh nomination.
But before one concludes that Hirono is simply a dedicated anti-male extremist, she also does not like women who do not toe the liberal line. For example, about a year ago, during the hearings that elevated Amy Coney Barrett to her federal appellate court post, Hirono revealed that she doesn’t care a whole lot for those whose Christian faith is important in their lives, especially the Catholic faith.
It is well-known that Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the woman who held on to the Ford letter until the most opportune time to spring it in a brazen attempt to derail the Kavanaugh nomination, told Barrett that the Catholic “dogma” was quite strong in her (Barrett). She strongly implied that a person such as Barrett who held strong Catholic views should be disqualified from serving on the federal bench.
What is not as well-known is the similarly negative attitude that Hirono displayed toward Barrett, demonstrating that her real preference is for political leftists, and that she does not like anyone who expresses Christian worldviews, male or female.
Hirono challenged Barrett’s fitness for a federal judgeship, considering that Barrett held to historic Catholic views: “It was enough of a statement of what you believe the role of religion was that it certainly caught my attention, because I thought that justice was supposed to be blind.”
Of particular concern was an old Marquette Law Review article written by Barrett, in which she said, “Both the state and unborn child’s mother are (at least typically) acting with gross unfairness to the unborn child.” Another remark in the article that troubled Hirono was Barrett’s comment describing the prohibition of the Catholic Church to abortion as “absolute,” that it was “always immoral.”
Barrett protested that the role of a judge is to apply the law, not her personal views on issues such as abortion or capital punishment. She added that if she believed she could not apply the law as written, the proper action to take is to recuse oneself.
So, lest anyone jump to the erroneous conclusion that Hirono is primarily concerned with protecting a woman such as Dr. Ford, a careful examination of her words toward Barrett leads one to the conclusion that advancing the causes of the Left is what is most important to Senator Hirono — and not just defending the rights of some liberal college professor (Ford), who has given dozens of political contributions to left-wing causes and candidates, and is now accusing a conservative judge of sexual misconduct when they were both teenagers in prep school.
It is not only men that Hirono thinks should just shut up and let her have her way; she also thinks conservative women need to shut up, too. To quote Senator Hirono again, “I think we all know when something is not fair, when something smells. This is so patently not fair.”
In this case, the orchestration of this last-minute charge by the Democrats is what smells and is what is not fair — to Judge Kavanaugh and the American people.
Photo: AP Images
