A former commissioner of the U.S. Civil Right Commission believes the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee played Dr. Christine Ford "like a pawn" and did not really care if the allegation was true so long as it helped to derail President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court and make her pro-choice allies happy.

Jennifer Braceras is an attorney and a senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum.  She says California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's decision to hold onto Ford's letter for weeks rather than bring the matter to the full committee betrays her real motivation.

"It's not just a procedural mistake.  It was a deliberate act on Sen. Feinstein's part.  What that tells me is that is not a woman who is concerned about the possibility of a serial predator taking a seat on the Supreme Court.

"She didn't care if Dr. Ford was telling the truth or if she was making the whole thing up.  Feinstein's objective was not to protect the court from a potential rapist or to protect the court from Brett Kavanaugh.  Her goal was to protect the court from any Trump nominee, which is why she held it," said Braceras.

Braceras says the right thing to do would have been to ask the FBI to investigate to allegation without going public with it, and that if she deemed the accusation to be true, that she could have urged Republicans to join her in asking Trump to name another nominee.

"That's what I would have done, but Dianne Feinstein wasn't concerned about that, because she didn't believe that," said Braceras.

In addition, Braceras says the Democrats are doing the bidding of Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice groups because Kavanaugh could tilt the balance of the court in a way Neil Gorsuch could not by replacing Antonin Scalia last year.

"The left has long believed that the only thing that stands between women and the back alley is Anthony Kennedy.  That's why when Kennedy retired, they became hysterical," said Braceras.  "So they were going to fight tooth and nail to stop any jurisprudential conservative from filling that seat.  They made that clear from the beginning."

Braceras does worry that confirming Kavanaugh under such a cloud - even without any corroborating evidence - could stain the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, but she says that is Plan B for the Democrats if Kavanaugh is confirmed.

She says eroding the legitimacy of the court is the the long game for the Democrats and Republicans need to play their own long game.

"We need to double down on teaching basic American civics.  The reason that we're always caught playing defense in these battles is because most Americans don't understand the proper role of the court," said Braceras.