An anonymous woman told HuffPost she was “warned” to look “outgoing” if she wanted a job clerking for Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh is the Supreme Court nominee whose confirmation has been temporarily stalled due to a 36-year-old sexual misconduct accusation leveled at the last possible moment. Kavanaugh says the alleged incident (when he was 17) did not occur. Two witnesses back him up.
To bring Kavanaugh down, the media are currently throwing whatever it can against the wall in the hopes of peeling off enough moderate Republican senators to kill his confirmation chances.
And for that reason, a wildly misleading HuffPost headline reads, “Brett Kavanaugh Liked Female Clerks Who Looked A ‘Certain Way,’ Yale Student Was Told.”
But if you actually read the story, that is not even close to the truth.
Naturally, the truth is buried under a dozen or so paragraphs of innuendo.
The story’s opening makes it sound as though Kavanaugh is grooming female law clerks for something untoward:
A few years ago, as she was prepping to interview for a judicial clerkship, a student at Yale Law School received a troubling combination of warning and advice from her professors about one federal judge in particular: Brett Kavanaugh, she was told, liked his female clerks to have a “certain look.”
HuffPost then links the Kavanaugh dress code “warning” to former appeals court judge Alex Kozinski, who retired last year under a cloud of harassment allegations: “[She was warned] about two judges in particular: First, Alex Kozinski, then a judge on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, was known to sexually harass his clerks, he told her. (Kozinski retired in December amid accusations of harassment.)”
At first, HuffPost tells us this anonymous woman did not know what that “certain look” was, stating only “It was very clear to me that he was talking about physical appearance, because it was phrased as a warning ― and because it came after the warning about Judge Kozinski.”
But a full fifteen paragraphs into the piece, we discover that she was, in fact, told what a “certain look” meant.
It meant…
“Outgoing.”
Yes, you read that correctly; people are telling budding law clerks that Brett Kavanaugh wants female law clerks to look “outgoing,” which the dictionary defines as “friendly and socially confident; extroverted.”
Merriam-Webster uses “outgoing” this way in a sentence: “His outgoing personality made him popular at school.”
In other words, you should dress for success, with confidence, sharp, ready to conquer the world, to succeed … and not like a granola with a chip on your shoulder.
Moreover, the person giving this “outgoing” advice is … a woman. Her name is Amy Chau, and she is a Yale Law School professor. The other person offering the advice is Chau’s husband, Jed Rubenfeld, also a Yale professor.
Without explanation, HuffPost describes Chau as “controversial.”
Somehow, though, the HuffPost story gets worse.
A full 16 paragraphs in, we learn this advice might have been meant especially for this anonymous woman.
“The woman said she was not sure if Chua was giving this advice to others,” HuffPost is forced to admit.
“A friend suggested that the student needed the advice because she was ‘awkward,’ according to a transcript of a Gchat conversation that the Yale student had at the time and that was viewed by HuffPost.”
And so, if you read between the lines, it sounds as though this anonymous law student dressed like a slob, and a couple of concerned professors, hoping to advance her career, brought this to her attention in the most diplomatic way possible.
For her part, Chau supports Kavanaugh’s nomination and says she has placed ten clerks with him over the years, eight of them women, one of them her own daughter.
“As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal, he has also been an exceptional mentor to his female clerks,” Chau told HuffPost. “Among my proudest moments as a parent was the day I learned our daughter would join those ranks.”
A full 22 paragraphs into the piece, HuffPost finally informs readers, “Giving law students advice on what to wear to an interview isn’t terribly odd.”
Of course, this is followed by a “but.”
“…but the particular warning about Kavanaugh is unusual.”
A columnist told HuffPost the advice is “sexist.”
Except it is not Kavanaugh offering the advice; it is a professional woman motivated to help other women.
Oh, and despite her misgivings about appearing “outgoing,” despite her “mixed feelings” about Kavanaugh, this anonymous woman still interviewed with him.
Obviously, she did not get the job.
Just one week ago, according to the media, Kavanaugh was a teenage “rapist.” Now the media are reduced to publishing misleading headlines, followed by a pile of dishonest paragraphs that are only there to bury the inconvenient truth of Kavanaugh’s stellar record when it comes to advancing the careers of “outgoing” women.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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