I understand your point Big, and it would be nice if people could be honest about their shortcomings.....

but the reality is that every single one of those people asking Kavanaugh if, when he was 20ish yrs old, he drank stupidly... has done at least as bad and very likely a thousand times worse. They are hypocrites pandering to other hypocrites... and 'I don't remember' is the sort of response that such hypocritical questions deserve in my book.

The 'lifetime appointment' comment is similarly pointless as we're electing a judge, not the Pope. I believe one of Kagans qualifications was that she was more like real people.... well, guess what? Kavanaugh is like 70% of college students and probably 70% of those who didn't go to college as well in his 20 yr old drinking habits.

Again, yes it would be nice if people weren't hypocrites (I certainly don't mean you just to be clear... I mean politicians and the press) and that we could value candor.... but the TRUTH is that nobody remembers things that vividly from 30 years ago, unless perhaps they were especially traumatic... but 'yeah, I had some pretty wild nights in college' when someone is accusing you of raping them isn't going to play well in the press, even if you didn't rape anyone and it's the truth. I don't remember is not only factually accurate, but professionally expedient. As you're a lawyer, I'm quite convinced that you wouldn't advise your client to 'remember' anything that he didn't actually remember pretty vividly., You'd tell him not to guess, not to generalize... to admit what you know you absolutely remember, and not what you don't.

Wouldn't you?