Surprise: New Hampshire Democrats Not Applying #BelieveWomen to Their Own

If you have been following the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court, you know that the position of the Senate Democrats (and Democrats generally) is that Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago (when both were teenagers) must be believed (despite the absence of any corroborating evidence) because Ford is a woman, and that Kavanaugh –because he is a man– bears the burden of disproving her allegation.

In other words, the venerable presumption of innocence standard no longer applies when the accuser is a woman accusing a man of a sexual assault.

Not really.

For example, Democrats are NOT calling for Keith Ellison to resign from Congress or from his position at the DNC or abandon his run for Minnesota Attorney General despite claims from his former girlfriend that he abused her:

The ex-girlfriend accusing Democratic Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison of domestic abuse told her doctor in 2017 about alleged “emotional and physical abuse” from Ellison, according to a document the woman published Wednesday.

Karen Monahan’s account in the doctor’s report is consistent with what she has been saying publicly since August: that Ellison was emotionally and physically abusive to her while the two were dating.

Ellison is the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and is the Democratic nominee for Minnesota attorney general.

Here at home Democrat State Senator Jeff Woodburn has been criminally charged for similar conduct:

A leading Democratic legislator in New Hampshire was arrested on Thursday on charges of domestic violence and assault.

The legislator, Jeff Woodburn, is the minority leader in the State Senate. He is up for re-election this fall, …

Mr. Woodburn is accused of assaulting a woman by throwing a cup of water at her, striking her in the stomach and biting her hand and forearm, according to a news release from Gordon J. MacDonald, the state’s attorney general. Mr. Woodburn is also accused of entering the woman’s residence and damaging her property, and was charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespassing. The news release described the woman as an “intimate partner.”

Woodburn is scheduled to go to trial in December.  I fully expect that Woodburn as a Democrat will ask the Judge to inform the jury that he should NOT be entitled to the presumption of innocence, and that it his his burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not commit the crimes he has been charged with.  Jury instructions along the lines of:

The Defendant, Mr. Woodburn, because he is a man, is to be presumed guilty, and it his his burden and his alone to prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that he has not committed the crimes he has been charged with.

Further you are to assume that his accuser, because she is a woman, is telling the truth.  Whenever there is a conflict between her testimony and his testimony, you must believe her testimony, not his.

Further, you are to ignore any exculpatory evidence presented by Mr. Woodburn. Anything other than what his accuser believes happened is irrelevant in this proceeding.

And I expect that Woodburn’s fellow Democrats will demand that these or similar instructions be given to the jury.

Yeah, right.  The Democrats would never apply the standard that they are currently applying to Brett Kavanaugh to one of their own.  Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Keith Ellison all prove that.

Undoubtedly the Democrat response to this would be something along the lines of: it’s different for Brett Kavanaugh; he is not facing criminal charges like Jeff Woodburn.  To which I would respond, that is a totally self-serving distinction.  If the woman must always be believed in the court of public opinion —or to be more precise, the woman accusing the Republican— she holds the power to destroy anyone’s life.  Why shouldn’t the woman accusing Woodburn wield the same power.