(CNN) Brett Kavanaugh had a "Matt Damon" problem.

The caricature of the Supreme Court nominee by the actor on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend had crystallized what lots and lots of people -- including many who were favorably inclined to Kavanaugh's judicial record -- thought while watching his testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday: Why the hell is he so angry?

Kavanaugh's opening statement -- in which he portrayed the allegations brought against him by Christine Blasey Ford and others as the byproduct of Democratic resentment over losing the 2016 election to Donald Trump -- was full of invective and defensiveness. And it didn't stop there -- as Kavanaugh verbally feuded with Democratic senators like Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Damon's fuming Kavanaugh -- "I'm going to start at an 11. I'm going to take it to about a 15 real quick," Damon-as-Kavanaugh told senators -- quickly became part of the cultural conversation. And a problem for those hoping to confirm him to the court.

The debate shifted from whether he had done the things Ford alleged -- the common view was that getting to the capital "T" truth of the matter, even with an FBI investigation, was virtually impossible -- to whether someone with the temperament Kavanaugh displayed last Thursday was the sort of person you would want to hand a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court.