If the election of Donald Trump has done nothing else, it has shown, to those who are willing to see, how utterly devoid principle the Democratic Party has become.  I'm speaking, in particular, of the last-minute accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh – specifically, that, while in high school and drunk, he sexually assaulted a classmate.  I don't know whether this is true or not; I do know, however, that if it is true, it would – as 65 female classmates have affirmed – have been extremely uncharacteristic of Kavanaugh.  (With the deceit we have come to expect from Democrats, this affirmation is supposedly "matched" by a letter claiming to represent not classmates, but 200-plus alumni from Kavanaugh's and Ford's high school, most or all of whom, spanning from 1968 to the present, never knew Kavanaugh or Ford and yet now, somehow, all "believe" Ford.)

Democrats have attempted to change the issue from what Kavanaugh allegedly did at 17 to how he has behaved subsequently.  (See here.)  That is, he has never apologized, nor has he admitted it.  There is always the possibility he has not done these things because he never committed the assault in the first place – because Ford, a committed Democrat, is either delusional or, in order to serve what she may see as the greater good, simply lying.

In any case, the only way Democrats can perhaps successfully attack Kavanaugh is not through the assault itself, but through the subsequent behavior.  By their thinking, this makes the assault itself a legitimate subject for investigation.  Overlooked in this strategy is the dishonesty of bringing the issue up in the first place, as if it were actually relevant in its own right.  In this, Democrats seem to believe that their own dishonesty, toward which there is no uncertainty, is irrelevant.

It is not.  When you're dealing with thieves, it is not incumbent or even wise that you deal with them in the same way you deal with people who are honest, or at least who have given you no cause to question their honesty.  Here, through their dishonesty, the Democrats are raising an issue that shouldn't be addressed in the first place.  Legally and morally, Kavanaugh should not validate their pretense by responding to it.

The question about Kavanaugh's behavior as an inebriated 17-year-old is not a question that should be asked in the first place.  It is not a question that has any relevance to his likely performance as a Supreme Court justice.  It is a question that is asked solely for political purposes – a question aimed at ignorant voters who will not distinguish what is relevant to the office of the Supreme Court and what is not.

In short, legally or morally, you can't (or should not be able to) get edible fruit from a poisonous tree.  Unfortunately, if not fatally, politics in this country, particularly among Democrats, has become divorced from law or morality.

Bert Peterson operates a website at www.4thofjuly.info.