Bitter? New York Times Dumps on Kavanaugh, 'Hailed as Hero' at School Reunion

October 29th, 2018 12:29 PM

New York Times reporter Kate Kelly is somehow back on the Brett (now Justice) Kavanaugh beat in Monday’s paper, covering in blurry fashion Kavanaugh attending a high school reunion at Georgetown Preparatory: “At Reunion, Kavanaugh Is Hailed as Hero.”

One can easily detect some seething between the lines of Kelly’s clipped rendition of the event, which featured a photo of Kavanaugh “hoisting a flag with some football players.” Oddly, the photo has no credit line, and the sourcing of the story itself is left unclear.

During halftime at Georgetown Preparatory School’s homecoming football game on Saturday, a group of students swiped through photos on their phones as they waited in a long line for burgers and fries. One sandy-haired boy tapped his latest image: a selfie with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the newest member of the Supreme Court and an alumnus of Georgetown Prep, Class of 1983.

Justice Kavanaugh -- whose years at this prestigious Catholic boys’ school were under a microscope during his Senate confirmation battle -- was back on campus.

Following allegations that he had sexually assaulted a young woman during high school, Justice Kavanaugh’s drinking, rowdy behavior and treatment of women at Georgetown Prep nearly derailed his nomination.

Justice Kavanaugh vehemently denied ever assaulting anyone, and he was confirmed and sworn in as a Supreme Court justice earlier this month. At Georgetown Prep’s annual reunion weekend, he was hailed as a conquering hero.

....

Tobin Finizio, a radiologist who was the quarterback on Justice Kavanaugh’s football team, was there. So were Bernard M. McCarthy Jr., now a managing director at a Washington real-estate company; Michael Bidwill, the president of the Arizona Cardinals; and Tim Gaudette, a consultant in Colorado. The three friends were among those drawn into the controversy after Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexual assault at a 1982 house party at which there was heavy drinking.

Mark Judge -- an author and filmmaker who, according to Dr. Blasey, witnessed the alleged assault -- was a no-show. So was Christopher Garrett, otherwise known by his high school nickname “Squi.” Mr. Judge and Mr. Garrett were so closely associated with the young Justice Kavanaugh -- appearing regularly in entries in his personal calendar in the summer of 1982 -- that they became part of a Saturday Night Live skit about the Senate confirmation hearings.

Kelly tried her best to make a drinking link.

At one point during the football game, Justice Kavanaugh prepared to pose for a picture with former classmates. First, though, he instructed everyone to put down their beers, according to a person who witnessed the exchange. (Justice Kavanaugh didn’t appear to be drinking.)

Kelly didn’t miss a chance to mention Christine Todd Blasey’s unsubstantiated accusations of “assault.”

Again [Rev. James R. Van Dyke’s] voice was drowned out by a chorus of whooping and cheering, as the crowd screamed some of those names: “Squi!” “P.J.!” That would be Patrick J. Smyth, another classmate whom Dr. Blasey said was at the party where she was assaulted. Mr. Smyth was at the Pinstripes event.

Father Van Dyke lauded “the loyalty that you have had to each other, the way that you have looked after each other, and not just in the big stories but also a lot of small stories.”

Sadly for the world, no one would provide illumination to this extremely newsworthy story.

(None of Justice Kavanaugh’s high school friends returned phone calls seeking comment on Sunday.)

Kelly’s previous reporting on the Kavanaugh hearings were masterpieces of minimalist news, including hostile anti-Kavanaugh updates about his generation-ago beach house party planning and his 1983 yearbook.