The mantra of the Trump era is “this is not normal,” and the Kavanaugh debacle is right at home in that regard, as we await the dueling accounts of accused harasser and harassee.

In the hyper-partisanized process that has become the new normal, the time from nomination to approval for Supreme Court nominees has averaged a dilatory two months, if you don’t count ignoring the existence of Merrick Garland for over a year.

Now, however, Republicans are raring to get Kavanaugh seated by the start of term on the first Monday of October. Not so he won’t miss a day of work, but to avoid the risk that the Democrats might take control of the Senate on November 6.That would doom the chances of any nominees as far right as Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, et al.

If that isn’t abnormal enough, there’s the case of the missing evidence. As a political judge in the Bush White House, Kavanaugh has a voluminous paper trail on issues likely to come before the court, just the sort of thing those tasked by the Constitution with advising and consenting to his nomination might want to see. But the majority has contrived to keep tens of thousands of pages away from prying eyes.

That’s hinky enough, but several of his sworn answers to the committee have also seemed less that entirely truthful. At best he played down his involvement in several controversial judicial appointees by Bush. Also in the new normal world in which we live, his blatant stonewalling of virtually all answers about his positions on judicial matters was not unexpected.

Yet his copious published record makes his sudden shyness seem absurd. In a sane world, it might not be unreasonable to expect a nominee to answer questions about where he stands on issues of judicial philosophy or his Catholic faith when it comes to divisive issues such as women’s rights, gay rights, abortion rights.

He also refused to discuss whether judicial ethics require a justice to recuse himself if cases of criminal law or impeachment come before the court if they concern the person who appointed him to the bench. Perhaps for all those reasons, Kavanaugh is the least popular nominee in the history of Supreme Court polling. And that was before the headline incident from his prep school days took center stage.

We all know now that he has been accused of attempted rape while staggering drunk at a house party, abetted by a second man, Mark Judge, who has described his alcoholic prep school experience in print. He even included a cameo by a fellow topper, Bart O’Kavanaugh. Could that be the judge in question?

The cry from the Republicans has been “he said, she said,” and both Kavanaugh and Judge have denied everything, including even being at such a party. But why wouldn’t they? Maryland has no statute of limitations on rape, and it’s not every day you get offered a Supreme Court seat. Conversely, what has his accuser got to gain by manufacturing such a tale. Especially since she didn’t make it up recently, but told the story, that continues to haunt her, six years ago to a therapist.

Defenders of Kavanaugh decided calling her a partisan liar was a dog that wouldn’t hunt, especially in the #MeToo era when blaming the victim is frowned on. So, they came up with a new angle. She was attacked by a doppelganger, a Kavanaugh look alike. Only in soap operas and B movies does the old mistaken identity wheeze work. And the geniuses who came up with this idea may have given the sap they singled out as the fall guy a heckuva good defamation case if he decides to take them to court.

To add hilarity to injury, Donald Trump vouches for Kavanaugh and wonders why the alleged victim didn’t call the cops or come forward when she was fifteen. Since he has a long history of sexual harassment, self-admitted pussy grabbing, payoffs to Playboy bunnies and porn stars, and has even been accused of spousal rape by Ivana, Trump would seem to be less than worthless as a character witness. With friends like him, Kavanaugh needs no enemies.

Amusingly, the Republican senators seem equally committed to making Kavanaugh look guilty by refusing to request an FBI probe of the allegations, as Christine Blasey Ford has demanded. That was done in the case of Anita Hill and is standard operating procedure whenever skeezy rumors about nominees have to be run to ground. Oddly, Kavanaugh, who loudly proclaims his innocence, has not chimed in to demand an FBI probe. Neither has Trump? Something to hide?

Even worse for the president’s cause, his outburst attacking the victim has provoked a galvanic response from women who have suffered the same kind of abuse. Tens of thousands rushed to explain to the molester-in-chief why a victim might not speak up. See, #why i didn’t report. They were joined by Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, who explained in a Washington Post op-ed why she never reported an attack years ago.

Most astonishing, perhaps, is the bio of Kavanaugh from the scene of the crime, the prep school’s yearbook. In it his jock accomplishments are listed. These include his several sports, but also name him as treasurer of the alcoholic Keg Club and a member of the aspirational 100 Keg or Bust squad. And then there’s his membership in the Devil’s Triangle? What’s that, you ask? Some Catholic secret society, perchance? No. According to the Urban Dictionary, a Devil’s Triangle is a sexual frolic with a cast of two men and one woman, not necessarily consenting.

In other words, Kavanaugh’s yearbook may actually finger him as a participant in the crime of which he stands accused. You can’t make this stuff up. Yet in our topsy turvy world it is not Kavanaugh but his accuser who is afraid to return home and has received death threats.

You be the judge. Does this gentleman belong on the Supreme Court? Especially since additional accusers have now emerged, perhaps just what his backers feared, and another reason for their unseemly haste. If elevated, a peculiar odor will cling to him for life, and for the first time in history two of nine seats, just about 30%, of the Supreme Court will be occupied by men accused of sex crimes. If we continue to taint our most important institutions, they will cease to possess the moral authority upon which they depend.