Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford is getting advice by Democratic super-activist Ricki Seidman, Politico reports.
Seidman, currently an executive at a public relations company, has worked for the Dukakis, Mondale and Clinton campaigns for president. She served as Joe Biden’s communications director when he was named Barack Obama’s running mate in the 2008 election, and managed the confirmation of Obama’s Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Recently, Seidman served at the the executive director of the liberal voter turnout group Rock the Vote.
Seidman served in Bill Clinton’s campaign’s “war room” and served as deputy communications director in the Clinton White House, according to Politico.
Most importantly, Seidman is no stranger to high-profile fights over nominations to the Supreme Court by a Republican president. She cut her teeth running attack ads against Robert Bork, a nomination that was eventually derailed. She then moved to Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy’s office, where she was instrumental in convincing Anita Hill to go public with her claim that Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her, The Weekly Standard reports. Seidman was also instrumental in leaking the Hill story to the press, according to “The Real Anita Hill” by David Brock.
According to the Weekly Standard:
As legal director for Norman Lear’s People for the American Way, she was responsible for the infamous attack-ad on the judicial record of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. She next moved to Senator Edward Kennedy’s office shortly after Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court, and she is credited with pressuring the reluctant Anita Hill to come out with her harassment story. When the Judiciary Committee failed to listen, according to David Brock’s The Real Anita Hill, Seidman helped leak the story to the press.
Seidman was so instrumental in the promotion of the Anita Hill story that HBO cast her in its dramatic series about the hearing, “Confirmation.”
Thomas was eventually confirmed and called the accusations a “high-tech lynching.”
Seidman told Politico, who broke the story, that she believes Ford is “courageous.”
“I believe her, and I think she’s very courageous for coming this far,” Seidman said.
Blasey Ford’s lawyers say she would be willing to testify next week before Congress, if the Senate Judiciary Committee can assure her safety and offer “fair terms.”