Usually I have the TV off from for MTP Daily because...well, it wouldn't be nice for me to say. Today, though, I was distracted, and hadn't turned it off after watching Deadline Whitehouse, which is actually worth watching. Man, I won't make that mistake again. My blood pressure can't take it.

I may as well have been watching Fox News. Senior VP of the American Enterprise Institute, Danielle Pletka spent her entire time on the panel shilling for Kavanaugh and clutching her imaginary pearls about the imaginary epidemic of false accusations of sexual assault against fine, upstanding Republican men. We can't just believe the WOMAN in these situations, can we? Where is the evidence? We wouldn't want to give these "individuals" too much POWER, would we? God knows what we would DO with it, what with our menses, and emotions, and inferior brains and all.

PLETKA: This is the word of one person. And I never want to dismiss the pain of an individual. I never want to say that you should not -- that you should be afraid to come out. I have to question the fact that there is no other evidence and that we are watching commercials about this man as if he is a serial rapist. You know, someone once said where do I go to get my reputation back? That's a reasonable question to ask.

No. No, it is not. People who are ADMITTED sexual assaulters and rapists hardly pay a price in our society, if at all. (See Louis CK.) Pletka is worried about someone who is FALSELY accused? Trust me, they'd be elevated to sainthood.

Cornell Belcher pushed back, thank god, saving not only the panel, but my sanity.

BELCHER: And I hear all that. And I have to respect it. But what if she's right? What if this has validity? Should she not have her day? Is because it was 30 years ago, does that mean -

PLETKA: She should have to prove it.

BELCHER: - she shouldn't bring it up right now?

PLETKA: She should have to prove it.

No. No, she shouldn't. Because the nature of sexual assault and rape is such that so much shame and fear is pummeled into the victim that he or she will very likely not be in a position to prove it with evidence. Christine Blasey Ford has supported her accusations as credibly as any victim could possibly do, with notes from her therapist from years ago, and a lie detector test.

BELCHER: It's a tough place to be. Too often in our society, women have not had their moment. You know, for -- even if -- women who have been done wrong have not had their moment. I think sometimes the me too moment can go too far. But I think it goes too far in one direction because we've gone too far historically in the other direction.

PLETKA: That doesn't mean serving justice on somebody who did nothing wrong. I understand people want redress, but that doesn't mean serving justice on somebody like that. And they deserve due process.

1. Justice does not automatically mean punishment. Justice means the guilty are punished, and the innocent would not be punished. For someone who did nothing wrong, there would be no penalty.
2. YES. They DO deserve due process! We agree! LET THE FBI INVESTIGATE HIM for this alleged crime! See how easy? Now, just get President Mushroom Yeti to agree, and we're all cool!

PLETKA: We haven't talked about how much power this gives people, individuals. You know, I could turn around and say anything. I could say anything about any one of us, about anyone I've worked with and people would say, well, you know, that certainly deserves a hearing. Okay. But maybe we need to have standards about this. Maybe we all need to agree as a society that there are rules that we want to play by, and that throwing accusations is a dangerous road to go down.

That is correct. We have not talked about how much power this gives people. And, by "people," you really mean women, let's be plain. Because where and when are all these people who are "turning around and saying anything?" Is it a trend? A pattern? Does it happen all the time?

Let's be clear about what you're talking about, Danielle, by power. Are you talking about the power to falsely accuse someone? People have that power NOW. People have always had that power. You want us to agree on rules we need to play by? We have them. They're described in detail in law libraries and played out to precision, one hopes, in the court system. So that if a person is falsely accused of such a crime, it will become clear that it's false once the accusation faces legal scrutiny. See how that works?

So what power are you TRULY worried about? Are you worried about the power of women who have been silenced for so long to actually stand up for themselves, and send their assaulters and rapists to face consequences for their actions? Are you concerned about the power of upsetting the gendered status quo? Are you concerned about the power of women to have control over their bodies in the form of sexual freedom and taking charge of when and how they reproduce?

Ooooooh. Now I see why Chuck Todd had you on as the daily Republican Kavanaugh apologist. How upstanding was Kavanaugh during his Georgetown Prep days? You be the judge.