I wouldn’t have voted for Kavanaugh. There seemed to be evidence that he was present in the place and at the time indicated and sufficient evidence that he may have been drunk enough at the time to have done something to his fellow student that would be regrettable.
People can have different views of the same event. A person might say something as a joke and its interpreted or misheard as a slur. Kavanaugh might have genuinely attacked Ms. Ford, exactly as she said. He might have been pulling some stupid prank - entirely non-sexual in nature - and she misinterpreted it. He might not know the answer, himself.
I’d expect that someone serving as the most supreme justice in the nation is able to set aside his personal interest in the matter, admit the potential that he may have done something while drunk, certainly admit the potential that he harmed her - whatever the intent might have been - and so on. I’d expect him to be humble and empathetic.
Kavanaugh was not that.
That all being said, if I’m interviewing someone to be a plumber, and I find out that the man pulled a little girl’s hair when he was a kid and he doesn’t feel sorry about it because - after all, he was just a kid - I’d have to admit that shit happens in life and his ability as a plumber has fuck-all to do with the hair pulling incident. He could be a god of the pipes and it’s just overthinking the matter to pay too much attention to the hair story. If you look through anyone’s life, you can probably find something that they’ve done that’s regrettable, If perfection is the minimum bar, you’re never going to hire anyone.
If Kavanaugh is knowledgeable and competent in his chosen occupation, doesn’t have any wild or crazy legal views, and seems to be a stolid and boring man then I could easily see someone deciding to hire him for the job. My high standards are very high and, possibly, too high to hold and have any hope that we’ll ever hire someone to serve on the Supreme Court. Maybe, Manchin knows that it’s a hopeless mission and you have to compromise a little bit.
And, likewise, maybe Manchin traded this for healthcare for the whole nation, to keep West Virginia under the power of the Democratic party, or otherwise made the choice based on some necessary sacrifice. Obama got real good at killing people in office. You don’t always get to just make softball, nice and friendly moves in the real world.
Manchin did not hire Lucifer, the Lord of Darkness onto the Supreme Court. He hired a guy who knew his shit and who was widely regarded as perfectly competent into the role. I wouldn’t have hired him, but that may just be on the basis of not knowing as much as Manchin or not having as many concerns to balance.