“We’ve Seen this Movie Before!”

(Anita Hill / Christine Blasey Ford)

by Stephen H. Farra, PhD, LP

NOTE: As a Psychologist who used to help run support and recovery groups for those who were sexually abused in their early years, I usually advocate FOR those who report sexual abuse. But, this situation is very different!

 POLITICO:  KAVANAUGH ACCUSER LEANS ON DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVE FOR ADVICE

Christine Blasey Ford is looking to Ricki Seidman, who helped prepare Anita Hill, to help her navigate a potential hearing.

Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both teenagers, is being advised by Democratic operative Ricki Seidman. “I believe her and I think she’s very courageous for coming this far,” Seidman said in a brief interview, confirming her role advising Ford.

Seidman, a senior principal at TSD Communications, in the past worked as an investigator for Sen. Ted Kennedy, and was involved with Anita Hill’s decision to testify against Supreme Court Nominee Clarence Thomas. In 2009, according to her online biography, she (Seidman) helped the White House manage the confirmation of Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Before that, she worked in the Clinton White House as Deputy Communications Director. She helped manage Clinton’s “War Room” during his elections.

[ Part of the Seidman playbook, of course, is to despise and refuse regular order and internal Senate investigatory procedures - to wait until the very end of the confirmation process, a few days days before the final vote, and then suddenly bring up in the most dramatic way salacious, sexual allegations that "just must be aired" in an "open, public forum." The whole procedure is not about "judicial temperament", or what is fair, or right, or legal. It is about "optics" and emotion, creating enough political pressure to cause the other side to give up or "cave in." It almost worked with Clarence Thomas, why not try it with Brett Kavanaugh? ]

According to The Daily Caller: Republicans who are currently witnessing this have said, “This feels more like a Democratic super PAC than a legal effort to get at the truth.” 

“If you’re concerned about an appearance of partisanship, hiring a Democratic operative with a history of smearing conservative judges doesn't exactly mitigate that,” said Cassie Smedile, press secretary for the Republican National Committee. 

As Deputy Communications Director in the White House, Ricki Seidman must have been involved in helping Bill Clinton manage these sexual allegations/cases/damages (as abstracted from Wikipedia):              

Juanita Broaddrick - In a 1999 episode of Dateline NBC, former Bill Clinton volunteer Juanita Broaddrick alleged that, in the late 1970s, Clinton raped her in her hotel room. According to Broaddrick, she agreed to meet with Clinton for coffee in the lobby of her hotel, but Clinton asked if they could go to her room to avoid a crowd of reporters; she agreed. Once Clinton had isolated her in her hotel room, Broaddrick states that he raped her. Broaddrick stated Clinton injured her lip by biting it during the assault.  In 1999, Clinton denied Broaddrick's allegations through his lawyer.

Kathleen Willey - According to Kathleen Willey in a CNN interview, during an early afternoon meeting on November 29, 1993 in the private study of the Oval Office, Clinton had embraced her tightly, kissed her on the mouth, grabbed her breast, and forced her hand on his genitals.

Paula Jones - According to Jones's account, on May 8, 1991, she was escorted to Clinton's (then Governor of Arkansas) room in the Excelsior[7][8][9] Hotel (now Little Rock Marriott) by State Troopers in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he propositioned and exposed himself to her ... Susan Carpenter-McMillan, a California conservative commentator, became her press spokesperson. Carpenter-McMillan wasted no time bringing the issue to the press, calling Clinton "un-American", a "liar", and a "philanderer" … "I do not respect a man who cheats on his wife, and exposes his penis to a stranger", she said.[11]

Judge Susan Webber Wright granted President Clinton's motion for summary judgment, ruling that Jones could not demonstrate that she had suffered any damages ... Jones appealed the dismissal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, where, at oral argument, two of the three judges on the panel appeared sympathetic to her arguments ... On November 13, 1998, Clinton settled with Jones for $850,000, the entire amount of her claim, sans apology, in exchange for her agreement to drop the appeal.

Monica Lewinsky - President Bill Clinton admitted to having had what he called an "inappropriate relationship" with Lewinsky while she worked at the White House in 1995–1996. The affair and its repercussions (which included Clinton's impeachment) became known later as the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal ...

In October 2017, Lewinsky tweeted the #MeToo hashtag to indicate that she was a victim of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault, but did not provide details.[73] She wrote an essay in the March 2018 issue of Vanity Fair in which she did not directly explain why she used the #MeToo hashtag in October, but she did write that although her relationship with Bill Clinton was consensual, because he was 27 years older than she was and in a position with a lot more power than she had, in her opinion now the relationship constituted an "abuse of power" on Clinton's part.

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It’s pretty clear that Ricki Seidman has spent her career defending the real abusers (like Bill Clinton) while helping to bring forward vague charges against men like Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh who are probably innocent. 

Further, every memory expert knows that “repressed and recovered memories” (the basis of Blasey-Ford’s claims), even when sincerely believed, are very often unreliable. 

One of the nation's premier experts on memory, particularly in forensic (legal) settings is Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, UC Irvine School of Law.

After extensive empirical research into supposedly repressed and recovered memories, here is what she has to say, quoted from the Abstract of the article cited below:

"None of us questions the reality of physical and sexual abuse. Far too many children are abused at the hands of people whom they love and trust, and for many, this abuse leaves lasting psychological scars that may remain throughout their lifetime.

But the central issue here is whether it is possible for victims of abuse temporarily to banish traumatic memories from consciousness only to have them return, in almost perfect condition, years and sometimes decades later. In our view, scientific research on memory sheds considerable light on the notion of repressed and recovered memories. Here, we review research on the process of forgetting.

On the basis of these data, we argue that there is no empirical evidence for repression and that claims of repression (in cases where the event really happened) are merely instances of plain old everyday forgetting.

We will also review research on false memories. On the basis of these data we conclude that it is possible (and, in fact, relatively easy) for people to develop memories for events that they have never experienced."

Citation: Loftus, Elizabeth F. and Garry, Maryanne and Hayne, Harlene, Repressed and Recovered Memory. BEYOND COMMON SENSE: PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN THE COURTROOM, Eugene Borgida, Susan T. Fiske, eds., 2007; UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2009-13. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1375023

** Thus, it’s fair to say, “We’ve seen this movie before!” We now know who Ricki Seidman is, and what she does.

If this latest attack succeeds, it may signal the beginning of true “mob rule” in the United States – and the end to congressional procedures being even remotely associated with the rule of law.