I’ve been writing a lot these past few weeks about what it means to be a man. Because it seems some people cannot appreciate a joke, and because of the paramount importance of this particular conversation, I will be writing completely seriously this week about one of the most honorable men to enter into public life in recent American memory: Brett Kavanaugh.

There are a few public figures whose images are distinguished by their high moral character and the integrity with which they conduct their lives: John McCain, Chris Coons and Jimmy Carter, to name just a few. Notice something important about these examples: These are all men of the left (yes, even the late Republican Sen. McCain, a nobler man than whom I would challenge any of you to find.) This is not about whose political opinions we agree or disagree with. Coons, in fact, has been one of the chief opponents to Kavanaugh’s confirmation process in recent days. What matters far more than the stance he takes is the dignity and respect with which he has gone about this business, as well as the consistent indications from his conduct that he is a person of virtue — a word charged at its very root with the meaning of manhood in its proper sense.

Kavanaugh seems, by all indications outside these recent allegations, to be another of these few virtuous men. He is a devout Catholic who participates actively in ministry to the needy. He is a devoted family man and, by all appearances, a loving husband and father to two daughters.

The efforts by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court have manifested not as rational criticisms of the judge’s interpretations of the Constitution, but as concerted attacks on his good reputation. So far, these attacks have revealed not that Kavanaugh is a bad man, but that he is an imperfect man. He is a man who gets a little upset when publicly accused of serial gang rape. He is a man who, while in high school three and a half decades ago, got swept up in the party scene which dominated his school. But many of us who would like to call ourselves good men will readily admit that we have overindulged at a party or two, and if — as the absence of any corroborating evidence seems to indicate — he is innocent, I would find it hard to criticize his emotional response to these allegations. Insofar as these are Kavanaugh’s only proven failures, questions of character cannot disqualify him from the seat to which he has been nominated.

There is perhaps no crime on earth more disgusting than rape, and all credible accusations must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But the public spectacle made by leftist elites and their allies in the liberal media over the past few weeks has been far more a character smear than it has been a quest for justice. Sen. Dianne Feinstein orchestrated multiple strategic releases of questionable information, not because she sincerely thought that Kavanaugh was a sexual predator and his victims deserved to be heard, but because she disagreed with his theories of jurisprudence. The New Yorker has openly admitted, in its coverage of the alleged victims, that it persuaded Deborah Ramirez to accuse Kavanaugh, though she was unwilling because her spotty memories of an incident in college were not clear enough to convince even her of her Yale classmate’s implication. High-powered ambulance chaser Michael Avenatti — a real-world example of that meaningless leftist buzz phrase “toxic masculinity” — produced, with suspicious timing, a witness who claimed that a young Kavanaugh was a member of a serial gang rape ring during his high school years, though she provided no evidence for this outrageous claim.

These politically strategic revelations by Kavanaugh’s opponents have been nothing less than shameful. Their manipulation of the clouded memories of women who have clearly experienced deep trauma is dishonest and despicable. Their remorseless disregard for the truth, for decency and for the life of a good man displays with terrifying clarity the desperate need in D.C. and beyond for the kind of character that Kavanaugh displays.

When I say that men need to be men again, I mean it. But underneath the humor, I’m not really talking about Dirty Harry or Ronnie van Zant; to those of you who missed the joke, I apologize. I mean men of character, men of faith and integrity and principle who, when endowed with power, use that power for good — men like Brett Kavanaugh.

We cannot stand for the slander of a good man. If the countless legitimate accusations that have broken over the past year can tell us anything, it is this: Good men are hard to find, and it’s getting harder every day. If we allow the few good men left to be torn down by their political opponents on nothing but distorted and disgusting accusations, it will not be long before there are none left at all. New information may arise which proves me wrong; if this happens, I will readily rescind what I have said here. But if I am right — and I would not be writing this if I did not sincerely believe that I am — then we need Brett Kavanaugh, precisely because he is the only antidote to the kind of man that his enemies want you to think he is.