I wrote about the latest assault on Kavanaugh for Politico today:

[The lack of evidence on other charges] has forced Kavanaugh’s opponents to resort to his testimony itself as the reason he should be disqualified, although they gloss over the most important part if they want to hang him on adolescent drinking.

In his opening statement in the Senate hearing, Kavanaugh said, “Sometimes, I had too many beers.” This is obviously an acknowledgment of excessive drinking. He further allowed of himself and his friends, in a statement that covers a lot of misbehavior (but not alleged crimes), “We sometimes did goofy or stupid things. I doubt we are alone in looking back in high school and cringing at some things.”

In the Martha MacCallum interview on Fox News the week before the hearing, he said much the same thing: “And yes, there were parties. And the drinking age was 18, and yes, the seniors were legal and had beer there. And yes, people might have had too many beers on occasion.” (The reference to the drinking age wasn’t meant to suggest he was drinking legally, rather to explain the ready availability of the beer.)

Kavanaugh never denied going to keg parties, or — to cite the recent reporting — enthusiastically planning his high-school friends’ excursion for beach week, or getting in a barroom scuffle at Yale, or even throwing ice at someone he and his friends mistook for the lead singer of UB40.

If Kavanaugh had been asked about any of these specifically and denied them, his critics would have a case for dishonesty that simply doesn’t exist.