Judge Brown Jackson won’t be testifying today, though she’ll be on the Hill later according to The Post. A panel from the American Bar Association will testify, and the committee will hear from witnesses, some called by Democrats and others by Republicans. Here’s the YouTube livestream:
The committee vote is scheduled for April 4.
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick writes that the judge was not only treated badly by Republicans (as expected) but that KBJ — and the fate of citizens’ rights under the FedSoc-captured SCOTUS more generally — were ill-served by Democrats on the committee:
Chairman Dick Durbin’s inability to control some of the most shocking bullying and abuse from Cruz, Graham, Tom Cotton, and Hawley left observers speechless. At some point, you need to just start gaveling. But there was also a pervasive sense of Democratic Senators’ almost chilling unwillingness to go to the mat for their nominee, who was being savaged by Cotton, who called her “not credible,” and Graham, who berated her with the claim that he was sparing her from being bullied like Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Take my word for this one thing: If you have been subject to abuse, bullying, and intimidation, what you really don’t need to hear from people in power is that they think you are “brave,” or that you’re modeling perseverance and grace. What you really want is for someone to stand beside you and take a punch—or throw one. Yet beyond a handful of such moments, and notably Booker’s final speech, virtually everything Democrats did felt insufficient to the moment. More than that it felt inexplicable.
What Republicans put Judge Jackson through today was appalling. The QAnon reddit smear was appalling, the relentless shouting that she should answer questions she had answered multiple times was appalling, the snide insinuations that maybe she wasn’t bothered by violent child pornography because she’s ok with it was appalling. To be subject to an all-out inquisition about not having clairvoyance about which sex offenders would reoffend by some of the very same people who invited and justified the January 6 attacks on the capitol beggared belief. And to intimate that this kind of insulting, sneering abuse had been leveled at Judge Barrett, as Graham did, was false to the point of ludicrous.
Still, it feels impossible not to lay some responsibility on the side that holds the gavel and let this happen. I don’t pretend to understand the strategic goals of elected Democrats. But if the objective was to just force this extraordinary woman through the human spanking machine in the hopes she would just survive, well, mission accomplished. But if there was any broader goal, I don’t know what it was…
I haven’t watched enough of the hearing to have an opinion on that take, though Lithwick is generally reliable, IMO. What do y’all think?
Bobby Thomson
They just can’t shake the fantasy that “the public” will punish Republicans for behaving like holes, rather than failing to show up for the people who won’t defend their own.
Baud
People were raising this in the morning thread. I haven’t been watching, so I can’t speak with authority. But my going-in presumption whenever I hear these types of arguments is misplaced responsibility because only Dems have agency.
From what I can tell, the GOP made themselves look like assholes and fools, which can only help us. Right?
Baud
@Bobby Thomson: I have the opposite reaction. People show up to defeat assholes (81 million against Trump), but not to reward people who do the right thing.
JMG
Durbin is a decent man who’s just horrible at political infighting. His body language has shrieked of
“I’m gonna lose, better get ready” for his decades in the Senate. In fairness to him, it’s obvious the Democrats made a joint decision that they can’t possibly offend Manchin or Sinema by conflict with the Republicans. Maybe they’re right, but it’s no so good convincing many voters, mostly their own, they’re a bunch of spineless, clueless weenies.
Another Scott
I’ve heard bits and pieces. She has done well and should be confirmed.
That’s what matters.
The rest is either inside-baseball, or Democrats-are-doing-it-rong, or … It will be forgotten in less than a month.
I did like the explicit calling out of Cruz and others demanding the chance to get their 30 second video clip for Fox. That’s all this is about for the RWNJs.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
I can’t believe we’re about to vote this wonderful woman to the Supreme Court and liberals are going to be depressed about the performance of Democrats on the Judiciary Committee.
Matt
Welcome to the party’s strategery for the 2022 midterms.
Re: “only Dems have agency” – in this case, that’s LITERALLY true. Durbin has the gavel.
MJS
@Baud: I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive. I’ll be very happy when she gets confirmed, but I’ll be disappointed that Durbin allowed the Republicans to grandstand, by speaking over her, not allowing her to answer questions, and going beyond their allotted time. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that when we have control of the Senate, we use it.
brendancalling
TBH, I haven’t been watching because I can’t stand trolls like Lindsey, Turd Cruz, and KKKotton. I’m more interested in what’s going on in Ukraine.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Some people are overly attached to whining and complaining. The popularity of the Squad and BS shows that its not just the right that loves posturing and theatre over substantive accomplishments
I for one thank my lucky stars everyday that the Ds are in charge of the Congress and the executive branch and are doing a great job under difficult circumstances.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Like BC, I give Lithwick considerable benefit of the doubt, but reading that clip, I had the same reaction as you. One thing I remember from the Thomas hearings is that things got quite snarly between Biden and Specter, but I don’t remember Biden being able to shut him up. I don’t remember Lindsey being able to silence Whitehouse or Hirono.
I do think Dems– and their allies– should start spreading the idea that a vote against KBJ is an endorsement of what Benji Sasse (and credit to him) called “jackassery”, and the sleazy racism (do you think we need more police, or less?) of those goons. If you don’t want Cruz, Hawley and Blackburn to be the face of your party, make that face cost.
I saw Cory Booker loop Tim Scott into his speech yesterday. I’d still bet on Scott voting against her.
DCrefugee
Dems often are terrible. But the R team is uniformly terrible, which makes the D team better. Until we find better Dems…
SW
I’m embarrassed to support the Democratic party. Party of wimps. Gutless cowards. They didn’t want to show up in the 30 second Fox News spots. Appalling. Fear and self loathing. I vote Democratic because it is the only possible way to defeat Republicans, but I will never, ever again self identify as a Democrat.
matt
She’s over empathizing with the big time lawyer who’s being made to suffer. And seems to think gaveling down Republicans when they get mean will be effective, when it’s not. It reminds me of the people who think Biden should just revoke everyone’s student loans by executive order. Childish.
schrodingers_cat
New troll sighted! Concern troll is concerned and outraged.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: @Baud: Some on our side find it really difficult to take wins. From my viewpoint, no one in GOP did themselves any favor with the general public on this. And it will be forgotten by most within days, but the judge will be a Justice for life.
Lyrebird
@Baud: Go Baud! I agree! I think they know they have the votes, and
@Matt: re: ” inability to control some of the most shocking bullying and abuse from Cruz, Graham… “, the only bit I saw, Durbin fact-checked Graham quietly but so thoroughly that Graham stormed out of the hearing. Tossing in Ken Starr was a nice bit.
Baud’s summary seems right on.
Betty Cracker
@JMG: Before Biden even named a nominee I was hoping Whitehouse would run the hearings because he’s appropriately outraged about FedSoc capture of the court, and Durbin, who is a good man and a good senator, doesn’t seem temperamentally equal to the task. But you make a good point about Manchinema possibly being a factor.
I haven’t watched much of the hearings at all, but I did see a long clip of Graham’s absurd performance yesterday and I agree with Lithwick about that: he should have been gaveled — literally on the fucking head if necessary — to STFU when he went minutes over time with his dumb histrionics. Seriously, cut the goddamn mic. Call a recess. Whatever.
Patricia Kayden
Thank you President Biden!!
Lyrebird
@schrodingers_cat: Have your new pens arrived? Sorry if pens is the wrong term.
James E Powell
@Baud:
Republicans have been acting this way for decades. It almost never hurts them & often helps them win.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
They’re politicians, not functionaries pulling levers. Communicating support for bedrock parts of the political agenda is a huge part of the job. It’s not an extra- it’s what they do.
If they don’t want to engage in politics perhaps they should take policy jobs in the executive branch.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a US Senator currently harassing Ketanji Brown Jackson about her understanding of /checks notes/ the Constitutio
ETA: Is google bombing still a thing? Can we make this what people see when they google Marsha Blackburn?
Baud
@James E Powell:
Once again, I give the example of Trump in 2020.
Most likely, most normies don’t care about GOP assholery or Dems supposed weakness. But one would think if being a so-called “strong” Dem inspired voters, we’d see more examples of them winning tough primaries and general elections (it’s easy for Dems in safe districts to be “tough”).
schrodingers_cat
@Lyrebird: Yes they have. They arrived on Saturday! I haven’t yet taken them out for a spin.
Just finished this one day before yesterday.
Kay
I think they should stick up for their people. Is it absolutely necessary to get 50 Democrats? No, probably not. But “only what is absolutely necessary to accomplish the job” should be no one’s standard. It’s too low.
marcopolo
This take is 1000% correct. As Graham and Cruz and Hawley and Blackburn (and a couple other Rs to a lesser degree) used their time (and often much more than their time–like 10 minutes over in one case) to push their bs crap and berate KBJ I was just sitting there gobsmacked that apparently the D members of the committee had not pregamed what they would do under these circumstances. That there was no one (or two) of them who had been tasked with the job of punching back at these cretinous mfers. We all know that KBJ wasn’t in a position to be able to defend herself. The comparison of her composure sitting there being shouted at and talked over and not allowed to answer questions to the histrionics of Brett fucking Kavanagh was dystopian.
And it is possible that with the war in Ukraine right now I am seeing this pattern in everything, but god damnit I am now a firm believer that if you let shit happen and offenders go unpunished you are giving a green light to it happening again and happening worse (like with Putin or Trump or the Jan 6 planners etc…) and honestly I don’t see how we ever have a sane (close to sane) Senate Judiciary hearing for a D nominated Supreme Court justice. For god’s sake, why didn’t Durbin gavel over and gavel down Graham as he spoke 10 minutes beyond his time (and then stormed out–it was so so obviously a planned stunt). I mean the entire Merritt Garland situation is just another plot on this graph, right? I don’t necessarily want to elect a D politician just because they can (take and) throw a punch (cause I actually like my electeds to be good at like legislating) but jeez louise we need more fighters. I’d put Katie Porter & AOC & my own rep Cory Bush into that (and Adam Schiff and Ted Lieu) in the Senate maybe that is Brian Schatz (sp) maybe EW maybe Sherrod & Bernie. I am curious who my fellow BJers see along these lines.
And finally, perhaps it is because I was mostly following the hearings when I wasn’t watching thru the lens of Elie Mystal’s twitter feed (l love his POV and sense of righteousness) but I was ready to throw a punch or two on behalf of KBJ at the end of yesterday.
Whew, if I still smoked I think I’d be going outside to light up now, lol, Time for some deep breaths.
Everyone have a lovely day.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Who is they? And if you think that the Dems are not pushing back, you are not hearing them in your echo chamber.
schrodingers_cat
So which Republican is going to vote for her?
Ella in New Mexico
Durbin is a wimpy guy, yes, but he may actually be trying not to appear as if KBJ needs to be protected like a delicate egg…but I disagree that running the commitee with some decorum would be that at all.
I think what I’m most angry about on her behalf is that by allowing them to badger and harass and interrupt and bully her for days and hours and hours of testimony they finally made her cry. I know the level of frustration and exhaustion it takes to make a really tough, smart woman feel overwhelmed and afraid, and because she’s not allowed to fight back like the bully deserves, WHAM! the tears hit from nowhere. Believe me, it takes a lot. But I think she’s phenomenal and I’m so excited to see her confirmed.
I will say Cory Booker has had her back this whole hearing and he is fearless and refreshingly, emotionally and intellectually honest about what’s at stake here. He puts Cruz and Hawley and Graham and Blackwell and Lee to shame every time he speaks.
Baud
Anyway, like I said, I haven’t been watching, so this discussion is too abstract for me beyond what I’ve said already. Peace out.
phdesmond
bulletin to Durbin:
gavel, don’t grovel.
marcopolo
@Baud: I am all there for celebrating the joy of this ala Cory Booker but what KBJ went through the past 2 days was atrocious and should be acknowledged. As someone (I don’t remember who) said, remember Kavanagh making that angry “you will reap the whirlwind” comment to Ds at his hearing? Yeah, now imagine what would happen if KBJ did something like that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I came to Balloon Juice from Eschaton because I found the level-headed pragmatism a relief from all the emo demands for righteous (and totally ineffectual) political theatre. That was a long time ago.
lowtechcyclist
What she said was pretty much Jennifer Rubin’s take as well.
MJS
@marcopolo: Your take is spot on.
marcopolo
@schrodingers_cat: I think maybe Tillis votes for her (in the committee); in the larger Senate maybe Murkowski (tho being up for re-elect may affect that), maybe Collins, maybe Romney. The crazy thing is KBJ is polling at 58% think she’s a great SC nominee. That’s where Robert’s was at and is the highest approval for a nominee for a quarter century. So I guess we will see but I think maybe she gets 53 votes.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep same here, I used to prize BJ for pragmatism and clear eyed analysis. Now it is the echo chamber of the Do Something Twitter
With some exceptions like you, Baud, Gogol’s wife among the commenters
I should OO to this list also.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: 2008? That’s when I moved.
sab
@Kay: WTF is wrong with the Republican party that they can’t support this woman? My parents were Republicans and they would have been fine with her.
My Republican brother went to work for a mutual fund that tirned out to be a religious cult. He is lost to us forever. Squirelly thinking there.
I actually got teary when I watched her persevere comment. I am rich and white and thereby entitled, and my black grandchildren are not. I see every day the difference in opportunities
ETA I think the difference is racist v not racist. Ugly divide, but in my limited personal experience it fits.
Omnes Omnibus
That is an exaggeration. There are many voices here. Including yours.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: a bit later, when the Naderites and the PUMAs (remember them?) came together to declare Obama worse than Bush. It was an article of faith (speaking of the SC) that Sonia Sotomayor was a sleeper agent of the anti-abortion movement.
lowtechcyclist
Jen Rubin: “Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) made a strong objection, but outside the hearing room where most Americans would not hear it.”
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: See my correction.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ah yes, that was pretty much when I stopped visiting the place at all.
Nicole
It’s “boys will be boys” on the Supreme Court confirmation level. It’s the mother’s fault when the white son behaves badly. It’s why 53% of white women were lambasted for all 4 years of Trump’s reign while the over 60% of white men who voted for him (see, I don’t even know the percentage of white men who voted for him, other than it was over 60%!) were given a pass.
Hell, black women created “Karen” as a term for a particular kind of racist behavior for a white woman, but white men promptly commandeered it so they could have a way to call a woman a bitch without using the word “bitch.”
So, of COURSE the white men attacking Judge (soon-to-be-Justice) Brown Jackson is the fault of the Democrats. (white) Boys will be (white) boys.
The Moar You Know
There’s a phrase that “triggered” me, if you will. Forgive me for what’s to follow, but I gotta say it once and then never again.
This is a statement that, in general, could be applied to the Democratic Party since 1981 with some sadly rare exceptions. Those exceptions largely being the ACA and the response to COVID by some smart blue state governors.
I’ll keep voting for them, because the alternative is simply not to be endured, but dammit we are just not bringing our best game. And I’ll also add that putting Durbin in charge of this sordid affair guaranteed these mooks would kick the shit out of our nominee. He’s got no damn spine.
Judge jackson deserved far better than this, dammit
@MJS: among other things, yes.
MJS
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, why should we expect Ds to run hearings according to Senate rules? That’s just crazy pie-in-the-sky stuff!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
fightin’ Dem Adam Schiff had “a gavel”. As I recall there were still quite a lot of nutty histrionics in the hearings he chaired.
EW, Bernie, Brian Schatz and Sherrod are all in the Senate. They will all give speeches when this vote moves to the floor. I’m sure they will DESTROY and eviscerate and gut-like-trouts all the Republicans. And we’ll never hear from Ted Cruz or Josh Hawley again.
lowtechcyclist
I personally agree with what Josh Marshall used to call his “bitch-slap theory” of politics: if one side keeps slapping the other around, and the other side doesn’t hit back, that side not unsurprisingly comes across as weak, and that doesn’t go over well with voters.
And just to get this out of the way early, I know that there are fairly few undecided, swing voters in this country. But there are people who will vote your way IF they vote, and the question always is, how do you get the more marginal voters on your side to show up? Being weak isn’t the way to do it.
schrodingers_cat
BTW Durbin bashers, Durbin may not be as theatrical as you like but he is doing a great job getting Biden’s nominees confirmed at a fast clip.
Cameron
@marcopolo: Well, to fight back, you’d have to lower yourself to their level – so far beneath you! I think Luke 18:11 captures the mentality.
jonas
A lot of Democrats just aren’t temperamentally suited to deal with today’s brand of Republican asshole. I recall a couple of years ago watching Droopy Dog impersonator Jerry Nadler on the House Judiciary committee trying to wrangle with (iirc) Jim Jordan or someone like that and just getting continually rolled by the vitriolic horseshit and time-wasting nonsense spewing from these guys.
Matt McIrvin
The purpose of all this bullying seems to be to shave off somebody like Manchin or Jon Tester, but it doesn’t seem to be working–instead it’s just repelling them.
sab
@Nicole: My haircut guy, hugely competent and a big deal in the AfroAmerican community, has a very nice white wife named Karen. We really need to drown this whole meme.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: I also agree with Mr. Marshall’s theory.
jonas
@Cameron: I believe that’s the one where Jesus cautions the disciples that when you get in the mud to wrestle with a pig, you both dirty, but the pig likes it.
waspuppet
40 years of “We don’t have the numbers so everyone just put your head down and get through it” b/w “We’ve got the numbers so everyone just put your head down and get through it” is why we have proud, open seditionists in the U.S. Senate.
Obviously, the problem is that one or several Democrats would vote against the judge if she “came off as an angry Black lady.” We deserve to know those names, although we can probably guess.
sab
I worry a lot about my Black granddaughter. Her immediate Black family have failed her completely, So we White guys took over. We love her. She is amazing and smart and responsible. But she has cut herself off from the larger Afroamerican community.
But she is Black and could be part of an amazing community. And she will never be White.
This is an ugly reality that is not part of our family but is part America as we know it currentky
James E Powell
@Baud:
I concede there are times when the Rs’ assholery costs them, Schiavo being a big one, but those are the exception. They’ve been pretty much either running the country or preventing it from being run for almost thirty years. And they have been racist assholes the entire time
NB – I am not adopting the “Ds are weak” argument being advanced by some observers of the Jackson Brown confirmation hearings. Nobody cares what happens in those hearings and the low information voters who determine election outcomes probably cannot name a single supreme court justice.
Ksmiami
Say what you will about FDR, Truman and Johnson- they could throw a (rhetorical) punch and relished the fight
Omnes Omnibus
@waspuppet: In today’s episode of Only Dems Have Agency….
Sorry, I put the blame for the seditionists on the seditionists and their like-minded voters.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Right. I’m so sick of the reflexive Dem-bashing.
Ksmiami
@James E Powell: So much this…. And yet they fail to see the flaw- that oppression holds everyone back
schrodingers_cat
@sab: I should have added you too in my list of exceptions to the echo chamber. Your granddaughter is lucky to have you as her grandma. My grandmother died when I was 17 but I still have many fond memories of her.
clay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Would someone like to ask this sitting US Senator exactly where the Constitution grants us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
(Hint: it doesn’t. That’s in the Declaration of Independence, which for all of it’s importance, is not legally binding.)
sab
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks.
Starfish
@Baud: The way that Republicans were using this as a venue to go to the mat for justice “I like beer” and justice “I didn’t take any notes, and I don’t know the rights given in the first amendment of the constitution” tells me that Democrats should have done a little better with their holding of the gavel.
I know that you believe that people will vote against the people behaving badly. However, I don’t have the same confidence in people as you do. In racism land, “we will prove that we will elect the dumbest one of us before we elect the smartest one of you.” That is why you get so many very stupid politicians from some of these districts. It is not that there are not better options. Electing the stupidest person around is some type of flex because they don’t believe that they are going to personally be hurt by government run badly. They may in fact benefit from it.
Benw
Between Obama and Biden, Democrats will have appointed 3 top-notch SC justices, all women, one Jewish, one Latina, and one black. Sotomayor is one of the best justices ever, IMO. Yea Durbin could’ve gaveled down some of the more egregeously racist bullshit (and the bullying was obvs personal to Lithwick), but the real travesty IMO is that fucking Mitch got to appoint 3 justices: one piece of Wonder bread, and two of the wildestly underqualified jerks ever. I wouldn’t hire either of those tools to fold my laundry.
Omnes Omnibus
@clay: OTOH, I am pretty sure that securing the blessing of liberty covers autonomy over one’s own body.
LongHairedWeirdo
The broader goal was to avoid a hissy-fit meltdown that would somehow tank the nomination.
I mean, here, Ms. Lithwick, you have no excuse. You know these are bad faith attacks; you know what will happen if those attacks are *disallowed*, and yet, you blame the Democrats for not finding some strategy to silence the assholes that will squirt diarrhea all day and all night, on TV, if they don’t get to dump a load on the nominee. The fact of the matter is, we live in a society where the bullies will swear they are victims if they are not allowed to bully people, and we *still* act like “well, maybe our bullied child isn’t *trying* hard enough to get along…”.
You know, we do this *every* time. The Republicans act like assholes, and people ask “why didn’t the Democrats shut them up?” They *can’t*. Even *trying* will be weaponized. The only way to fix this is to start calling out bad faith when it happens, which, right now, is “every day, all the time.”
zhena gogolia
@LongHairedWeirdo: Thank you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ksmiami: Right. Nothing else happened from 1928 to 1968. Just sheer acts of magnificent and unstoppable fight from the Oval Office!
The Thin Black Duke
White people love seeing black people abused. Racists love it because they’re sadistic assholes. Liberals love it because it feeds into the sick narrative of black people being the “noble” punching bags willing to “take one for the team”.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt:
Bingo.
I don’t hear anyone suggesting that the Republicans don’t have agency. People like Rubin and Lithwick, and people in this thread, are quite clear that the Rethugs have agency, and they’re using it quite abominably.
But the Dems have agency too. Is it too much to ask for them to use the agency they’ve got? Does it constitute Dem-bashing to find fault with them for failing to use it in a situation like this?
Starfish
@schrodingers_cat:
Why are you regularly so nasty in the comments and so quick to go after other Democrats?
Omnes Omnibus
@The Thin Black Duke: I can tell you that I am not not enjoying any of it. It’s fucking appalling.
UncleEbeneezer
Perhaps Dems decided that the important thing is getting Judge Brown Jackson confirmed. Let the GOP throw their childish tantrum. Refuse to give the media a Both-Sides narrative that would be inevitable if Dems pushed back repeatedly/strongly. And keep the Dem votes on board to confirm her. Maybe Schumer felt that turning this into an even bigger circus would make a No vote from Manchin, Sinema or whoever more likely. I don’t know, I’m just spitballing. We have no idea what Schumer/Durbin know from behind closed doors. I’ve been in scenarios where I really wanted to stand up and blast my shitty City Manager, Mayor, Chief of Police etc., who were saying some low-key offensive bullshit and other people (especially an amazing black woman organizer I trust) would say “nah, just let them cook, We got this. Stick to the plan.”
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke:
Not this white person. And not the overwhelming majority of white people on Balloon Juice. Would you disagree with that?
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Same here.
Starfish
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, we definitely need someone here constantly whining about The Squad. We just don’t have enough people representing that point of view.
It is a very serious view point that needs to be considered when things are before the Senate Judiciary Committee that contains zero members of The Squad.
Omnes Omnibus
@UncleEbeneezer: No, that can’t be it. If it was, then this Senate would have been confirming judges at a record pace. Oh, wait, it is.
The Thin Black Duke
@Omnes Omnibus: I know that you’re not or any of the other white people here. But what I’m seeing is white Democrats watching this shitshow and doing nothing while white Republicans are waving their dicks around. I’m a realist. I know Jackson is going to the Supreme Court. I’m just damned tired of white assholes being assholes and getting away with it at Jackson’s expense. Do any of the folks here think Jackson is feeling good at the end of the day? Jesus. I wish Al Franken was back in the Senate.
zhena gogolia
Oh, I just watched that “Persevere” clip and I am sobbing.
Amy Coney Barrett and Bret Kavanaugh don’t deserve to be in the same room with her.
Omnes Omnibus
@Starfish: I made no representations about the quality or correctness of anyone’s views. I will note that I don’t really agree with s_c about the Squad, but I very seldom agree with anyone on everything.
Mike in Pasadena
Heard all of Lindsey’s time at the mic and learned that yes, Virginia, contrary to the Constitution, there IS a religious test for office in the US. Oh, and at least once or twice he allowed her to give most of her answer before he interrupted her. Although Lindsey’s rudenes was breathtaking, Durbin tried to interrupt the interruptions several times. He should have done more to help, but then he would have appeared to be the ahole. No doubt the fundies were cheering on Lindsey`s sneering nastiness. He has no class.
LongHairedWeirdo
@The Thin Black Duke: You know, I’ve been thinking about race in America, and it’s like, we know Black people are morally superior to whites. No, really, other-folks.
See, we know if we put Black people in charge of a state, because they won enough of the post-Civil War elections, they’ll seek out justice.
If we allow the, uh, “Reconstruction” of the bigotry and lack of protection afforded slaves, we know that white people will essentially re-enslave Black people. Oh, there won’t be the daily threat of a whip to pick the cotton; but there will be the constant awareness that the law does *not* extend its protection to you.
Seriously: the Texas “sue everyone” anti-abortion law is in precisely the same realm as the Jim Crow south. De jura, the government isn’t oppressive. De facto, civilian vigilantes are allowed to ruin lives.
You know what really torqued me off when I learned this? A concept I’d heard of call “respectability politics”. If Black people dress nicely, and act politely – i.e., pre-bully themselves into making themselves more acceptable to white people – then, they’ll catch exactly as much hell as if they didn’t, as soon as they really piss a white someone off.
Why does it bug me so much? Well, if you search this thread, you’ll see another comment about “our bullied child” not trying hard enough to get along.
Let’s just say that no one in my working class neighborhood wanted to teach children to be kind, so, as everyone knows, many of them grew up giving, and receiving, cruelty.
Crazy thing is, until the 1960s, it wasn’t even really considered *wrong* to be cruel, so long as you felt like it, and no one saw it on TV. And it makes me wonder if that’s why so many Republicans are literally barking mad, thinking that cruelty and bullying are actual *good* things.
lowtechcyclist
@LongHairedWeirdo:
Well of course it was. So let’s let the Rethugs have unlimited time to see if they can goad Judge Jackson into one, rather than bring down the gavel when they’ve overstepped their time, at the very least.
What – they’ll go and rant on Fox News?
Bring down the gavel. If that fails, turn off their mics. If that fails, recess the hearings. If they continue their antics when hearings resume, recess the hearings again, have the room cleared, and have the Sergeant-at-Arms refuse re-entry to the misbehaving Senators.
You don’t need a ‘strategy’ here.
Oh noes!
And that’ll work with, who exactly? The loyal Fox News watchers?
Yeah, and in the hearings themselves is the place to start.
You can’t live your life afraid of what the other guy might do. And that’s exactly what I hear you saying here: can’t do this because they’ll do that. It just hands them the initiative.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lowtechcyclist: you’re obviously better versed in the rules governing the Senate judiciary committee than I. Could you show me what Durbin, and his gavel, could have done, and didn’t?
ETA: Ah. “Bring the gavel down”
zhena gogolia
@LongHairedWeirdo: I think of that Repub woman running for office who had been a teacher and said she didn’t like it that the kids in her class weren’t being allowed to “laugh at” transgender kids.
ian
Ladies and Gentlemen- this is your friendly reminder that we are about to put a D on the supreme court (first time in over a decade) and there is a very good possibility we may get a second nomination this year.
Rejoice!
Geminid
The thoughtful Magdi Semrau:
Bill in Section 147
Democrats did something wrong. – Most Every Democrat and Most Media
Democrats picked this extraordinary person to be the next justice on the Supreme Court. Democrats will confirm this extraordinary person to the Supreme Court. Democrats will swear-in this extraordinary person to be on the Supreme Court.
And when this extraordinary person rules in a way we do not like because they will be one of the justices that will actually try to follow the law…
Democrats did something wrong. – Most Every Democrat
Matt McIrvin
@James E Powell: The other extreme is Erik Loomis’s position that the hearings are “politainment” that politically serious people should not be watching or paying attention to at all.
Baud
@Starfish:
I don’t know one way or the other. For all I know, Durbin going Rambo on the GOP could help them too by validating their grievances, or by making normies subject to the media filter think both Dems and the GOP are behaving like assholes.
I also respectfully submit that no one else really knows what will help or hurt the GOP or help or hurt Dems. The one exception is that, IMHO, focusing on how much Dems suck in the style they display in the course of achieving meaningful progress can only hurt us.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: People who think that they are being supportive really need to quit with this “not all white people” business.
The white people who matter here are the white people on that committee. If what is being said here about Durbin not gaveling out people for being over time, then he failed.
There is no testy argument about whether someone is over time. They are either over time or not.
TriassicSands
Senators — As a founding member of White People for White People, I must, respectfully oppose the confirmation of Judge Jackson to sit on the Supreme Court. Surely, there must be a white man who would be a better choice to fill this upcoming court vacancy.
Yes, it is so gratifying to watch one white person after another oppose Judge Jackson’s confirmation. Highly credible people like the white, male AG of Alabama or white, female Assistant Professor Jennifer Mascott, former law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Who could possibly be more credible?
Wait, they finally found a black woman to oppose Jackson’s confirmation. She is testifying about how CRT will affect Jackson’s jurispudence. Really? I guess that must be because Jackson repeatedly went out of her way to stress that her every decision depends on CRT. WTF? This woman, unsurprisingly, works for a religious freedom group. We all know that Christians are the most oppressed group in America today. This woman’s testimony is embarrassingly irrelevant. But the endless parade of white opposition was beginning to stand out.
oldgold
What was Durbin supposed to do with the gavel? Hit the performative nihilist Senators over the head with it?
In real time there is damn little, if anything, a Senator chairing a committee can do to other Senator flagrantly violating the rules.
This criticism of Durbin is BS.
Felanius Kootea
@Matt: I’ll just say that I only watched a bit because it was upsetting to see a stellar nominee be repeatedly insulted and treated with the utmost disrespect by Republicans. I absolutely believe that a Republican committee chair would not have allowed speakers to harangue a nominee, going over their allotted time and generally flouting previously set out rules. Dick Durban definitely had agency here and could and should have used the gavel or cut off the mikes of those who went over their allotted time. Only Cory Booker seemed to understand what it meant to give comfort and moral support in the moment to someone being treated terribly.
Maybe this is colored by my experiences as a black woman in America of people who witness something happening, do absolutely nothing to help but come to tell me later in private how awful they felt about the way I was treated. Nah say something right when it matters.
Anyway she showed grace, they showed their asses and I’m looking forward to seeing her on the Supreme Court, where she belongs.
Tony Jay
So, Republicans are (mis)using the hearings to cut election clips of themselves berating an uppity African-American woman with various red-meat buzzwords and conspiracy theories popular on the Right? And they’re doing it by breaking some of the rules under which the hearings are supposed to be held? Is that right? I’m not watching and I don’t know what the rules are supposed to be, but would anyone say that isn’t what’s happening?
If so, then I’m baffled that it’s somehow out of line for Democrats to be annoyed that their people at the hearings, particularly the one holding the gavel, aren’t doing what sounds like the bare minimum to push back on the inevitable (and it is inevitable) shit-flinging by Republicans. If they deliberately go over time, gavel them out. If they shout over the nominee’s answers, shut them down. That’s not ‘histrionics’ or ‘whining and complaining’, that’s using the power you have under Senate rules to protect your nominee from out-of-bounds shitthousery. Isn’t it? Why let the Republicans effectively control the tone of these hearings?
Sure, they’ll just carry on and try to play the victim of “Democrat bullying”, but so what? Why is that so much worse than sitting by and letting them smear shit all over the proceedings and the nominee? Are Democratic Senators going to vote against Jackson because Ted Cruz or Marsha Blackburn or Lindsay Graham got ever so delicately whacked on their exquisite snouts? If not, what’s the point of letting them reinvent the rules around Supreme Court nomination hearings? Where’s the benefit? How will that help the next nominee should Clarence Thomas’ brave battle against hilarious bad-timing go the way it seems to be going?
We have a similar (not the same, just similar) dynamic over here with Prime Minister’s Questions. The insipid Loyal Opposition asks questions that, if answered even remotely honestly, would put Flobby and his Government in a very tight space, so all they do is lie. Clear, undeniable, 100% proof lies, over and over again. This isn’t supposed to happen. Lying to Parliament is a resignation offence and the elected Speaker of the House is empowered to enforce the rules. However the Speaker of the House is also a spineless creep who just wants to come out of this with a knighthood and a seat in the Lords, so Flobby and Co get to lie, and the Media report on this as the Tories ‘winning’.
Now, people ask, why don’t they just stand up and call them liars? Sure, that’s against Parliamentary rules too, and when it comes to MPs who throw that particular bomb in the Chamber the Speaker suddenly develops a backbone, but so what? The Loyal Opposition mumble about “being seen as the adults” but that doesn’t get them any benefit, they just look weak and complicit. They’d be better served if they just came out at every PMQs and listed the Tory Party’s latest lies and let the Speaker kick them out. It’s not like they have the numbers to win any votes anyway, so they might as well speak the truth and drag the conversation onto the grounds of what’s worse, a Government routinely lying or an Opposition breaking Parliamentary rules on propriety to call them out for lying? Have that argument instead. See if that’s enough to shift the public mood from apathy to engagement, because what they’re doing now isn’t shifting so much as a single rabbit turd.
I just don’t see the benefit of letting the Right set the rules when you actually don’t have to and there doesn’t appear to be any over-riding benefit to be gained from it. What am I missing?
Frankensteinbeck
Ketanji Brown Jackson is going to have the last and biggest laugh. Decades of it.
I would be more sympathetic to arguments that Dems aren’t doing enough here if they weren’t coming wrapped in ‘Dems are weak’ arguments that I got sick of a decade and a half ago. It is vastly easier to destroy than to create, and I am gobsmacked at what Democrats have accomplished in that time when 40% of the population want to burn the country down because they’ve been made to share even a sliver of power with minorities. Everything Democrats accomplish disappears into the aether ten seconds after it’s done, and I’m back to being told that Democrats Always Cave. Considering how regularly I’ve been hearing wailing about the whole 75% health pension post office problem since I got here, we should still be celebrating that Schumer got it fixed. We’ve gotten more done already than McConnell did when he owned all three branches and a better majority.
marcopolo
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah, I find it a little reductive to take a comment that I wish Ds on the Senate Judiciary Committee had done some pregaming and figured out in advance how to deal with the R puke funnel approach to KBJ that we all knew was coming (tho to be fair mostly from 4-5 R Senators on the committee) to make some link to it being constant D bashing (tho I also made a broader point about letting assholes get away with assholery leading to more of the same and I do stand by that). But then maybe I am not on here enough to see it happening all the time in posts.
As for what the Ds have accomplished running gov’t since the last election–I am their biggest fanboy (like aside from Manchin & Sinema). I don’t even want to think how many more folks would have died of Covid or how bad the economy would have been without the Covid stimulus or how bad (not that it is not terribly horrific now) the situation in Ukraine would be if Biden wasn’t president (I physically shudder thinking about it). I just think it is possible to have space in one’s brain and thoughts to be able to provide critiques of specific situations while also being supportive of the overall cause.
Anyway, here is Elie Mystal’s piece in the Nation on the KBJ hearings. Honestly, as a middle aged white male who is financial secure & and has enjoyed (hopefully not unexamined) white privilege most of my life being able to see things thru the lens of folks of color (and other genders) is really important to me, really important to keeping me grounded in understanding how the world appears and works for all those folks who do not look like me and enjoy my situation.
KBJ’s Long Pause Explained Racism and Sexism in America
This is a well written, well thought out reflection by Mystal. Apologies to him for this long pull quote, but it’s not behind a paywall so I encourage folks to give it a read.
David Fud
We do understand, right, that these RWNJs are catering to a shrinking base, and that the long play is to let them sound stupid to the rest of America? They keep boxing themselves in and offending everyone except RW Silents and Boomers and the smaller assortment of younger RWNJs. Deplorables, all.
My take: Never interrupt when your enemy is making a mistake. At some point, it is arguable exactly when, that this behavior will remove their viability from power. You have to let them destroy themselves, and not get so upset about it, IMHO.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: I’m pragmatic. Most black people are. Eyes on the Prize and all that. That’s why White American is trying so damned hard to take our voting rights away. Having said that, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect black people not to be pissed off at watching a ridiculously overqualified black woman being turned into cannon fodder, especially when it seems to happen all the damned time. I’m so fucking tired of this shit.
Kropacetic
SC is frequently a perfect mirror image of the Twitterati and white liberals she likes to dunk on.
She has the right take on this, in theory. Maybe Durbin could have pushed back on the more egregious excesses of the Republicans, but there’s no outright stopping them and this nomination will go through. KBJ is a grown woman who assuredly knew what this would look like.
ETA: I do like the counter-point someone made to Durbin’s supposed weakness, judges are getting confirmed at a decent clip.
But really, SC, smooth that chip off your shoulder.
schrodingers_cat
@Starfish: I am defending Dick Durbin and the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee against majority of the comments on here bashing them.
Since when is calling out trolls, nasty? This was the comment I was referencing.
Go and tone police someone else. Thanks.
Starfish
@Matt McIrvin: Loomis’s position is not a bad position. Have the hearings really changed anyone’s mind or have they led us to believe, “Man, these Republicans are the assholes we knew they were” and led others to believe “Man, those Republican Supreme Court nominees were deeply persecuted.”
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
No one disputes that. The debate is over who to allocate the piss between the two parties.
Timurid
They dropped all the mask mandates this week, and I’m not talking about Covid.
matt
@Matt McIrvin: I agree with that one. They’re having the pro forma hearing, and the vote will occur on party lines. Maybe Manchin fucks the dog again. This hearing won’t decide that.
Starfish
@TriassicSands: That happened? I need a bath. I need two baths.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Sometimes the criticism might be valid. What the Democratic Party leadership does with it is up to them.
I have heard media pundits say of the Supreme Court hearings that the Democrats, as expected, ask softball questions, while the Republicans, as expected, ask critical ones. Some, not all, pundits note how ridiculous the GOP line of attack is.
But too many of them have accepted the idea that the hearings will be a meaningless circle and most male commenters also appear to accept the idea that the opposing side can be as vicious as they want to be. They take a stance that this is how things are done in the Beltway. There is nothing to be done.
But I have talked to some people who are deeply offended by what is happening at these hearings.
And these people vote.
No. The question is how the Democrats might best protect a person who is being unfairly trashed.
schrodingers_cat
BTW one white man who has been wonderful and supportive during the hearings is KBJ’s husband. I know Dr. Jackson (in his capacity as a GI surgeon at the Georgetown U Hospital), he is a great doctor and as the hearings have shown, a good husband. They are so lucky to have each other.
LongHairedWeirdo
@WaterGirl: All I’ll say is, if you’re white, you probably don’t realize how much *some* people enjoy it.
That’s a good thing – it’s like hearing a parent whip (not merely “spank”) a child and thinking “OMG, who could do that? I never could!” No, you couldn’t – but that’s just it.
Because you can’t imagine it, it’s *possible* – I never tell anyone what’s inside their own head! – that you underestimate the number of people to whom it seems like acceptable behavior.
Now, some of those people will say “only if necessary” – but, face it: much abuse of children occurs because an adult deems it necessary, and not always for good reasons.
There’s a lot of hate out there. Remember: sight unseen, Trayvon Martin was the bad guy, automatically, to the right wing. They didn’t care about the facts; they just wanted to vilify Trayvon, and insist that any killing of him *must* have been 100% justified.
And, honest to goodness, as a white person, I know I’ve sat through it and thought it unkind, but not out of the realm of reason. That said, it was before I realized that every Republican argument should be treated as bad faith, prima facie.
Baud
If this discussion were within the confines of BJ or even Twitter, I would care less. But the fact that prominent Supreme Court journalist Dahlia Lithwick used up precious real estate to focus on the Dems behavior to the GOP gets on my nerves.
germy
The rest is just noise
The Thin Black Duke
@Brachiator:
As I said, black people are pragmatic.
Baud
@Brachiator:
Well, good, right?
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Great minds think alike.
Lyrebird
That is gorgeous! From the plum tree (or other) blossoms to the truly peaceful smile.
DougL (Formerly EmperorofIceCream)
@LongHairedWeirdo: I couldn’t agree more with this. We have allowed the bullies (or sociopaths if you prefer a more clinical term) to take charge of vast swathes of our society and economy. To these people, rules are points of leverage and exploitation. Dislodging them is going to be the project of a generation (while dealing with war, climate crisis, errrr, everything!).
wenchacha
I struggle to know the right approach, or the best, or just an effective one. I shrink from bullies. I would like to see Cruz and Hawley and Graham and Blackburn and Kennedy get publicly shamed for their shittiness, but I don’t know what does that to them.
Were these hearings any better when I was a kid? Watergate happened when I was twelve.
satby
And sometimes you just need to let your enemies show their bad faith bullshit so clearly it can’t be denied. Don’t imagine for a minute that the entire Dem side, including the judge and her family, weren’t prepped to expect the theatrics. It was predetermined by who sits on the commitee.
schrodingers_cat
@Lyrebird: I didn’t draw this one, only colored it. So can’t take all the credit. Thanks, BTW.
laura
@SW: Fuck You and your preciousness. Seriously, fuck you you prideful skid mark and your 1 important vote.
Frankensteinbeck
Let me add something. Everyone knows how green energy has been wildly expanding. Do you know why? I know why, because I had to research it for Japanese television news (a weird, unlikely job) when it happened. It’s because Obama poured money into green energy research in the Stimulus. Poured money. There was a huge leap in technology that, for example, took solar power from being break-even over a panel’s lifetime to much cheaper than alternatives. Democrats get a lot of shit done and do not get credit for it.
satby
@wenchacha: Watergate hearings were jointly led by Nixon’s Republican party. Back when Republicans still had members who put country before party and power.
Kropacetic
Guess we gotta vote them all out, to a one.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes exactly this. And those supposedly on our side bash the Ds all the fucking time.
TriassicSands
I was furious at Durbin’s allowing Graham to go far over his time limit in bullying and abusing Judge Jackson. I sent Durbin an email and called his office. It was a despicable display of weakness.
Yes, that was appalling and should never have been allowed to happen, but, in the end, the exchange revealed at least two things.
First, Graham is a POS. (Among the most desirable qualities of Repubicans.)
What is more important is that it demonstrated beyond question that Judge Jackson possesses more judicial temperament in her pinky than Brett Kavanaugh could hope to have given an infinite timeframe. In reality, he displayed his complete absence of judicial temperament and that should have disqualified him from sitting on the SCOTUS. Instead, every Republican senator voted to confirm.
Jackson’s composure is extraordinary. It puts to shame the behavior of whining victims Alito and Thomas.
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish: I haven’t been watching them, myself. But they do seem to be driving us toward the position “Democrats should do more to control this type of theatrical bullying than they do.”
Ruckus
I’d bet that the dems have a pretty good chance that all dems will vote for her and may have actually asked the members. That leaves getting some rethugs to vote for her. If dems try to steamroll this, not allow the rethugs to be themselves there may be some members of the conservative caucus that might not actually vote for this extremely well qualified woman. As they did not long ago when they voted her in her, if I’m not mistaken, current job. They all know she’s qualified, well except for her skin color, which even some of them know is not an issue and never should be but those are the just a bit less asshole members of the conservative side. I’d call them small children except most small children are far better human beings. These assholes got their feelings hurt when their planned overthrow of the government fell apart because they are worse than useless fucks. And they are butthurt because they see that the majority of the country sees them for exactly the fucking assholes they actually are and are proving in this performance.
satby
@Kropacetic: exactly, on the Republican side. The Democrats did fine, except to those who mistake theater for government.
Starfish
@Kropacetic:
Centrist Democratic Twitter has their own echo chamber, and some people have a hard time seeing when they are living inside that.
They have zero discussion of climate change there, and yet they want to hold the mantle of “the serious” part of the Democratic party.
It bothers me because the local Democratic party does it too. Someone was spending their time in one of the local Democratic Zoom events complaining about young people never showing up without realizing there were young people on the Zoom call who could hear them.
Kropacetic
Says habitual basher of Ds but, you know, those Ds so it’s OK.
Benw
@germy: that’s very good.
LongHairedWeirdo
@lowtechcyclist: I’m not arguing with any of the suggestions you made, but, remember: the Republicans are very good at weaponizing hate and innuendo.
That *does* have to come into play, at least until the news media acts responsibly. Look, let’s be honest: our political journalism was faced with a situation where one side was *literally* killing American citizens, and the other was advocating for protecting lives.
Objectively speaking, there’s no question of which is better for the nation, but our political journalism is so broken that both positions – good faith, and bad – are allowed to speak.
See, here’s the thing: there’s a big news story here. The Republican Party is doing a lot of horrible things, with impunity. It will never stop doing those things unless they are exposed to daylight. Right there, that’s a massive news story in the public interest. It’s going without mention.
In that atmosphere, saying “Oh, you *NASTY* Democrats, trying to look like good sports, to avoid what you think is unacceptable political payback!” isn’t responsible. When has the news media backed the Democrats to the point that taking a stand, for an objectively correct decision, wasn’t a terribly dangerous choice in the past 30 years?
If the news media won’t back Democrats, even on fundamental questions of fact, why do they get to scold Dems for being afraid to tackle tough issues – issues they *know* will result in blowback?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Not just her. Nepotism beneficiary Molly Jong Fast and many other blue checks of the Do Something Twitter with media perches are at it too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: I listen to her podcast because she gets good guests, especially on Covid, but she’s an awful green-lanternist. “Why doesn’t Biden/Garland just….”
I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s actually kind of dumb.
Starfish
@schrodingers_cat: It was heart-warming when he laughed as she was talking about how she went to a public school and was not a prep school graduate like her husband was.
schrodingers_cat
@Kropacetic: The Ds I bash hate calling themselves Democrats. They are Democrats of convenience like their Lord and Savior from Vt. They self identify as Democratic Socialists and attack other elected Democrats.
zhena gogolia
@ian: And our justices are so much better than theirs!
lowtechcyclist
@Frankensteinbeck:
The argument will stop holding water when the Dems stop looking like they’re being pushed around.
Passing legislation wasn’t exactly their main goal. They just wanted ACA repeal and the tax cut, and they got the tax cut. OTOH, they stuffed the courts full of wingnut judges and Justices.
JML
It’s also important to note that while Lithwick is one of the great Supreme Court reporters of all time, broader political analysis ain’t her specialty so her trying to decide what the Dems should or should be doing to supposedly control this confirmation hearing is a little on the pearl-clutching side of the DC intelligentsia, you know what I mean?
Ossoff and Booker have been doing a fine job standing up for KBJ, and while Durbin may not be the fire & brimstone preacher with a gavel some people want, he’s torn grandstanding fools like Hawley & Graham to pieces, and afterward pointing out how everything some of these tools have said is wrong wronger wrongest and one of them starting whining and complaining basically told them to go fuck themselves and they could use his gavel to do it because he was the chairman.
I’m sorry Durbin wasn’t loud enough for Lithwick, who seems to be making sure a certain segment of her audience has it dialed up to 11 that she’s still smarter and better than everyone else. Hard pass.
Kropacetic
Well they seriously don’t want to challenge the status quo too aggressively. There’s too little faith in the voters that they’ll say “we should do something about that” rather than “what if my electric bill goes up $0/50?”
Meanwhile, the left takes all the opprobrium while the centrists luxuriate in their freedom to shiv the broader party’s agenda.
zhena gogolia
@Timurid: inorite? No shame, no shame.
zhena gogolia
@germy: Oh, yeah!
Starfish
@Matt McIrvin: I have watched a few of the Twitter clips. Mostly Cory Booker, but I did see the Ted Cruz CRT nonsense too.
What stood out to me from the clips was that Judge Jackson was really well-trained to handle the questions. Thank Doug Jones for all the preparation work they did for this.
However, she was also tearful yesterday, in a way that is not going to show up on the transcripts.
That part where this person who is extremely competent and well-trained is tearful due to the way she is being treated, and there are a bunch of people on the committee just letting this happen, bothers me a lot.
jnfr
The Republican behavior was shockingly bad and disrespectful. Their loving recitation of various details of child porn was creepy and repulsive. Cruz, of course, ran out to interview on Fox News with a very smug smile on his face.
KBJ performed flawlessly, and when Booker did emotionally express his joy at seeing her there, she teared up a bit with him.
Kropacetic
I believe what you described here is participation in a circular firing squad. Let’s break it up before someone gets shot, shall we.
Lylymay
@marcopolo: I sure do remember that childish outburst from Kavanagh. but, I remember even more, the look of horror on his wife’s face and realized that she has witnessed this childishness when he can’t get his own way many many times, in her own home! In my opinion, he was born and is a bully.
By contrast, as the first black woman considered for the Supreme Court, she is expected to show a demeanour that most white folks would never have had to.
Disgusting display by these “white” Repugnicans!
TriassicSands
@SW: Perhaps, you should direct your anger at Durbin. As the committee chair it was hiw responsibility to prevent the kind of debacle created by Graham (among others).
It is true that the time-tested (and failed) rules and norms of the Senate frequently deliver the wrong people to leadership positions.
Everyone here should contact Durbin’s office, both by email and telephone to express our outrage at his spinelessness in doing his job. Yes, some of it stems from the phony collegial nature of the Senate, but watching Graham make a mockery of time limits as he ruthlessly tried to bully Jackson was disgusting. Durbin initially tried to get Graham to stop and then simply gave up. Giving up in the face of Republicans is a prescription for disaster.
Contact Durbin
NOTE: I just tried to call Durbin’s DC office again and they aren’t answering due to “high call volume.” I can only hope it is because of disgusted Democrats calling to express their outrage.
1-(202) 224-2152
Starfish
@jnfr: Okay. Maybe I misunderstood the source of the tears, but the way that the Republicans were acting seemed vile.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@TriassicSands:
Nope. If you’re not a constituent, all you’re doing by contacting Durbin is harassing a low-level staffer. Contact your own damn Senators, R or D.
Sure Lurkalot
Must admit, woke up in the dark of night with some of these feelings. The non-prosecution of Trump by the Manhattan DA, the various individuals thwarting subpoenas still spewing hate and inciting violence with no consequence, the postponement of hearings on the insurrection—rumored to now occur in May when people are outdoors and planning summer trips.
To draw parallels with Ukraine, as the west tiptoes around what’s a red line for fear (however realistic) of WW3, it seems that a similar fear grips those who have been entrusted to bring the powerful to account, that our fragile democracy will not survive the light of scrutiny.
WaterGirl
@Starfish: This is a very broad statement and it was surprising coming from the Thin Black Duke.
To me that is tarring with way too broad a brush, and I said so. I asked The Thin Black Duke whether he really believed that statement to be true.
Please don’t equate that in the way you have suggested.
Ruckus
I am also wondering why anyone would think that a white republican politician in this day and age would act any different than a white cop on that bridge in Selma in 1965. Their entire political concept is all the money is ours and the only thing black power is for is to pick cotton. That hasn’t changed in the last few hundred years, why would it change today? The racists on the right side of the aisle know they are racists and they like and think that is the minimum that they have to be. We’ve had a black male president, that went so far over their line and now we have a black vice president and the WHITE president wants a black woman on the supreme court? How dare they!!!!!
Racists gotta racist. It is the basis of their entire political and actual breathing life, why would you think they would act any different? They tried to overthrow the government for an actual idiot racist to stay in power, this is the minimum bad behavior they know how to do.
Another Scott
@marcopolo: Durbin cannot control anyone else. We should not expect him to.
What matters is that Brown Jackson will be on the SCOTUS. All of the RWNJ posturing in committee is just noise.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Sure Lurkalot: leaving aside the UKR comparisons: The consequences for Republican actions have to come from voters. If the people of TX, MO and TN aren’t, in the majority, disgusted by these hearings, there’s not much Democrats can do. What Democrats can do, and I hope and assume are doing, is reaching out to voters in Florida and North Carolina and Pennsylvania who are disgusted, using targeted social media that are a mystery to this old luddite, but are apparently effective.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have to agree. I muted her a long time ago.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Y’know, I’ve put up with centrist Democrats saying “I’m a Democrat, but not like those other Democrats,” or even avoiding identifying themselves as Democrats in their ads, for decades. So spare me your self-righteousness.
Frankensteinbeck
@lowtechcyclist:
So you’re saying that Republicans are even weaker than Democrats and do nothing but talk, and McConnell failed to pass, needing 50 votes, the second biggest priority of his caucus. That despite the big talk he got exactly one thing done. We’re stuffing the courts even faster than they did, and the context of this argument is that Democrats are about to pass a Supreme Court justice despite Republicans throwing a screaming shit fit.
EDIT – Let me add that About-To-Be-Supreme-Court-Justice Jackson is exactly as offensive to Republicans as Kavanaugh and Barrett were to us, in the same way that Trump was as offensive to us as Obama was to them. They’re racists and assholes and we aren’t. This isn’t a split between two basically the same groups on different sides of an issue.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: Black people are tarred with a broad brush every single day, so if they want to talk about their experiences in generalizations some days when they are frustrated, there should be some space where those feelings are allowed. The words do not have to be perfect.
lowtechcyclist
@Frankensteinbeck:
No, the tax cuts and the judges/Justices were the two biggest priorities. 2 for 2.
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: Just because I don’t worship at the altar of the finger waging independent who is a leap year Democrat (only during the primary season) doesn’t make a centrist
BTW I was not bashing you, I was bashing those who get elected as Democrats and then attack other elected Democrats like the President or NP from the left to increase their clout in the media.
laura
I’ve been calling my Junior Senator Alex Padilla’s Sacramento office every day this week to express my gratitude for his efforts on behalf of the nominee- from outreach to the spanish language news organizations to his participation on the Judiciary Committee. I didn’t bother with Feinstein’s office despite her opening her line of inquiry about abortion rights- maybe I’ll get around to that today. I sure hope that she steps down and that her replacement is of the caliber of Senator Padilla.
Frankensteinbeck
@lowtechcyclist:
If you’re going to pretend that everything they failed at doesn’t count, yeah, I guess Republicans will always win.
The Thin Black Duke
@WaterGirl: I apologize. I should have said “some white people”. It was an unnecessarily harsh and inaccurate comment to make. I know better than that. I respect and value the community here, and my anger needs to be directed at the targets that deserve it.
Old Man Shadow
You can’t make everyone happy. Get her to 50+1 votes and on the court, then you can rip into the GOP publicly and loudly.
Another Scott
@waspuppet: Nobody voting for Cruz or Hawley cares one bit about Dick Durbin or what some twitterer or blogger on Daily Kos says.
Senators are elected by voters in their states. Once they’re in the Senate, they are pretty much powers unto themselves (for good or ill). If they want to be monsters, no committee chair or majority leader can stop them.
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Exactly. The way the hearings looked yesterday, the Republicans came across as angry cranks and the Democrats looked calm and sane.
Brachiator
@The Thin Black Duke:
RE: And these people vote.
Even pragmatism has its limits.
jnfr
@Starfish: The Republicans were absolutely acting vile. No question. Her tears came when Booker praised her.
Kropacetic
Can this be a rotating tag?
Soprano2
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I look at his blog every day but I’m less and less inclined to pay much attention to what he says. He thinks the CDC changing their mask policy means they’re calling everyone who still wants to wear a mask a “weirdo”, and seems to believe the only two possible policies the government could advocate are “everyone should wear a mask in all public spaces for some undetermined period of time” or “we have face-licking parties at Applebees”. This is seriously his take.
The Thin Black Duke
@Brachiator: In this instance, not really. Voting for a Republican or not voting at all, aren’t viable options. This country won’t survive another Republican administration. Anyone who believes otherwise isn’t paying attention.
schrodingers_cat
I think Tynisa sums it up well
Kropacetic
I’m not convinced we’ll survive another Republican Congress.
schrodingers_cat
@The Thin Black Duke: You shouldn’t have to apologize. And paraphrase your disappointment with, not all white people. You said nothing wrong. Statistically you are in the right. One doesn’t have to wear the hat if doesn’t fit.
Soprano2
@marcopolo: Unless Durbin was willing to cut their mics, he was right to not try to do anything. Think how it would look if he kept trying to gavel them down and they just ran over him. I personally wish someone else had run those hearings, someone who was willing to cut their mic when they went over time or to forcefully insist that they allow Judge Jackson to answer the question that was just asked, but I think half-heartedly trying to gavel over the Republican histrionics would have actually looked worse. If the head of the committee wasn’t willing to do what it took to keep them under control, then better to just let them make assholes of themselves. I think part of it is that too many of the older D senators still labor under the illusion that the R’s are better people than they are.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: If nothing else, it was a lost opportunity for the Senate Democrats to show leadership in a fairly safe venue.
Kropacetic
I do think they loosened the masking guidelines way, way too early. Still, I think one approach that may have helped, if not for Republican perfidy, would have been to push for more volutary masking where mandates either didn’t exist or weren’t being enforced.
Masks are great. They help stop the spread of disease. Whiners are gonna whine but I can think of at least three articles of clothing I’m expected to wear regularly that cause me more discomfort.
Brantl
@Baud: Of course we are, we expect everyone on our side to be Superman, and all of their people to be no more competent than Bizarro, for some clueless fucking reason. I don’t understand why our side thinks this, but they do.
Soprano2
@The Thin Black Duke: Well, I don’t like seeing anyone abused, so count me out of that. I was bullied in high school because my dad was the superintendent of our school for three years when I was in elementary and junior high, so I HATE BULLYING. I don’t know how you prevent what happened the past two days, though. The R’s were obviously trying to make short video clips for Fox News and right-wing Web sites. Durbin ineffectually gaveling over them would have made their erections even bigger.
Kropacetic
Two somewhat related reasons: The media will eviscerate any Dem for not being Superman and we, as voters, are well aware of the consequences for their failure to live up to that wholly reasonable standard.
Starfish
@Kropacetic: I would never live that down. The number of published authors here? ?
Brachiator
@The Thin Black Duke:
I know a number of people who don’t vote. I don’t agree and think that this is a corrosively cynical option. But people know the difference between a Democrat who just wants their vote, and a Democrat who is actually committed to helping people. The Democrats can afford only so many bullshitters.
There are many people who don’t really understand this. There are politicians and pundits who think that Republicans and Democrats can always work together, even though some Republicans would have let Democrats die on January 6.
But this gets away from the main point. Yeah, Judge Jackson will probably be confirmed.
The Democrats should do more to protect her from abuse.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: I agree. Though it was gracious to do so, it wasn’t necessary.
tinare
I didn’t watch any of yesterday, a little of the day before and didn’t read many of the comments on this, but I’m kind of tired of everything Republicans do somehow being the fault of Democrats. It seems as that’s constantly the only story. Republicans behaved badly, but that’s because Democrats (fill in the blank.). YMMV. Republicans are assholes. Period.
Sure Lurkalot
@The Thin Black Duke:
TRUTH.
Kropacetic
@Starfish: I’ve read many published works, not from our authors, but still. I think they know better than anyone.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah. No apology needed. I understood what he meant.
J R in WV
I watched and listened to quite a bit of the hearings, and the Rs showed that they are evil bigots, using fraudulent arguments against a great judicial nominee who is twice the person the whole batch of racist loons the Republicans on the committee are.
I would rant on, but am on my tablet and can’t type as well as with a real keyboard.
Lots of good commentary here, I think Durban was right to allow the Rs to show their own ass in front of the world, and I’m really proud of Judge Brown Jackson as a wonderful person. It was a shame that the RWNJs would treat her like that, but they are crazy, what are you going to do with that?
The Thin Black Duke
@Soprano2: As I clarified, some white people do because those same white people keep voting these abusive white assholes into office. However, I think some white people should understand that black people seeing a black woman verbally abused in public is going to be goddamned upsetting. I’m sorry that my anger led me to unfairly target the people here, but I won’t apologize for what triggered my anger.
Chief Oshkosh
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t think that is the purpose of the bullying. They are bullying as a performance to their base. All four of the jackasses got spots on Fox last night AND to be able to refer back to their “concerns” when they snipe at her decisions once she’s on the bench.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: “leap year Democrat”
I like it
Betty Cracker
@tinare: All true, but I thought Lithwick’s critique was worth sharing because I generally respect her analysis of the court and I know a lot of other folks here do too. Yes, Democrats are unfairly criticized a lot, often by those ostensibly on the same side. But sometimes criticism is fair, and Lithwick is usually fair, IMO. Circling the wagons has its uses, but it can also become a reflexive response that blocks opportunities to do better.
Felanius Kootea
@The Thin Black Duke:
Nor should you have to.
We aren’t robots.
I’m grateful for Cory Booker and Alex Padilla.
I hope the Republicans who acted so disrespectfully get what they deserve.
I’ll leave it at that.
Ksmiami
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m not saying everything was perfect but there’s no reason to cower from the crazy mooks in the GOP either. Judge Jackson deserved respectful questioning, not a shitfest pile on.
Felanius Kootea
@Chief Oshkosh: They won’t snipe at any of her decisions for a while because they won’t need to.
As Sheldon Whitehouse made clear, whoever funneled over $50 million to make sure that the Federalist Society nominated three justices whose main goal is to help America’s oligarchs get their way on everything has won, for now. Let’s see how long they keep the 6-3 majority.
JaneE
I don’t know how many ordinary voters are following the hearings, but I sure hope that clips of KBJ being asked about her religion get featured in Democratic ads along with some words and music about which party is anti-American.
Ksmiami
@Felanius Kootea: Basically I’ve arrived at a point where if someone is a Republican, they are automatically a horrible person. The party is a retrograde disgrace and anathema to modern American values.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
See, I just genuinely don’t know what “going to the mat” means, and I didn’t watch enough to know whether Durbin reacted quickly/strongly enough. All counter-factuals being equally bunk: Would a Maizie Hirono or Sheldon Whitehouse reacted differently, more aggressively with “the gavel”? Probably. And then…?
All this makes me think of “There oughta be a law”, which I vaguely remember as being a common comic phrase on TV and movies back in the 70s, an expression of befuddled exasperation. There should be Something Democrats can do! Democrats didn’t do Something! Therefore Democrats failed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a few people here and on twitter got excited yesterday when Amy Klobuchar totally owned Ted Cruz– the quote or paraphrase I saw was “Oh look, he’s got charts”, apparently in a mocking and dismissive tone. Did that happen? I looked for clips later, didn’t see them. The only Democrats I saw go viral were Booker and Whitehouse, and I’ve seen a lot of praise for Ossoff’s seriousness and relevant questioning.
Dopey-o
Not to disagree with you, but immediately comes to mind the way black folks (and especially black women) saved America from 4 more years of fascism and associated evils. Sorry about the bruises you have suffered on my behalf.
There will be justice, but not in our lifetimes.
Matt McIrvin
@The Thin Black Duke:
There WILL be another Republican administration, if not in 2025 then in 2029 or 2033. We can only forestall it, at best. So we have to prepare for this eventuality. I admit I don’t know what to do–the first thoughts that spring to mind would go badly for me if I expressed them out loud here.
Ksmiami
@The Thin Black Duke: Spinelessness in the face of undeserved character assassination is not appealing… if the sclerotic anciens in the Democratic senate won’t defend the nominee, how can we expect them to defend their constituents…
Fake Irishman
Hey all, understand the frustration here. One thing that needs to be said in defense of Durbin is the confirmation record: Dems have quietly confirmed 15 appeals court judges and 41 district court judges this Congress, including 10 in the last week. That is a good record, especially considering the type of judge Dems are putting on the bench. That doesn’t happen without a judiciary chair who knows what they’re doing.
Matt McIrvin
@The Thin Black Duke: I’m struck by the way that Kavanaugh was able to turn the tables halfway through his confirmation hearings and portray himself as a victim just by raising his voice. He yelled and bellowed at them and it turned it all around, at a point when it genuinely seemed like he was going down. There is no way that would work for Brown Jackson, who has to play the respectability game instead of yelling “how dare you”. It’s this huge difference in privilege.
WaterGirl
@Starfish:
That, I agree with.
germy
Brachiator
@germy:
Very true.
opiejeanne
@schrodingers_cat: Hit dog hollers? I knew you weren’t directing your comment at that person, and who it was directed at, and it wasn’t Starfish.
JoyceH
I have mixed feelings about the hearings. Confession – I didn’t watch them. I knew going in that the GOP would not be able to stop themselves from turning into rabid hyenas, and I just didn’t have the stomach for it. So I mainly learned what happened via news reports and twitter.
My take is – it’s a shame and a disgrace that this woman was put through such an outrageous ordeal that she’d done nothing to deserve. And it certainly would have been better if Durban had been more assertive in controlling the howling pack.
On the other hand – the news coverage was entirely about Jackson’s dignity and the GOP’s horrific and racists attacks on her. The ridiculous charges they were making against her were dismissed out of hand. I’m sure the situation was otherwise over on Fox, but that audience isn’t persuadable anyway. The tone of the coverage was ‘what an eminently qualified woman and how dare they treat her this way’. Repeat ‘what an eminently qualified woman’ – nothing about too liberal or too soft on crime, none of that. The Republicans might have been better served to make some gentler and less personal critiques of her record, so pundits could feel free to question if she’s ‘too liberal’ without feeling like they’d be siding with a lynch mob.
Some of you seem to be saying that the Democratic lack of forcefulness in responding to the GOP in real time was as bad a look as the original GOP attacks themselves and would turn off ‘our’ voters, but I’m skeptical about that.
I only have one anecdote to offer for consideration. These days and going back quite some time, there has been a lot of blame attached to Joe Biden for his handling of the Thomas-Hill hearings and how he allowed the GOP to run rough-shod over the process. Don’t want to relitigate that, but provide a personal observation. It was those very hearings that turned my mother, a lifelong Republican from a long line of Republicans, into a fervent Democrat where she remained for the rest of her life. Her entire focus was on the unfairness of the GOP attacks, not on the Democratic response to them. I know times have changed and politics have changed, but I wouldn’t be surprised out of a year’s growth if there were more old ladies like my mom out there.
Soprano2
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: OMG, if you’re talking about Molly Jong-Fast I totally agree with you. Plus, her laugh is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. She needs some serious vocal coaching if she wants to be on a podcast.
Soprano2
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, it wouldn’t do me much good to contact Hawley’s office. LOL He’d be overjoyed to know I was offended by his (literal) performance the past two days.
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke: Please don’t apologize. You could have said some white people, or many white people, or a whole lot of white people, or way too many white people – and all of that would have been true.
I have been appalled and disgusted by the totally inappropriate and unwarranted behavior toward someone who deserves nothing but respect. To those Republicans she was like a dog they could kick, not even a person, and kick and attack her they did, because they could.
Their treatment of her makes me sick, so to read what you said was jarring. My question to you was sincere, and if you had told me that yes, you think all white people really do like seeing black people abused, that would make me really sad and I would have listened to why you feel that is true.
So please, don’t apologize for writing what you did. As sick as I feel watching her being abused and bullied like that in a public forum – partly driven by hate and part performance art – it had to have been more personal for you and every other black person who watched it. Just like when I go to a funeral, it brings up unfinished grief for everyone else I have lost, this has to be more personal for anyone who has been treated like shit or less than human because of their skin color.
I should have seen that you were venting your frustration. I consider you a friend, and any question I had about whether you really felt that way about all white people could have / should have been saved for another time. I am very soorry to have made a shitty day more shitty for you.
JoyceH
@Soprano2:
Might make you feel better. “Guess I told HIM!”
WaterGirl
@Kropacetic: Yes.
Soprano2
@The Thin Black Duke: Yeah, I posted before I saw you clarified it. I understand somewhat, because I feel rage sometimes when I think about how poorly Hillary Clinton has been treated all her life just because she’s an accomplished woman. I’m offended for Judge Jackson as a woman, because as a woman I’ve experienced numerous times when a man interrupts me in the middle of an explanation because he thinks he knows something better than I do. As I’ve heard it said, “God give me the confidence of a mediocre white man”. Men like this always believe one of their number is the MOST QUALIFIED person for any job, no matter what it is. They are absolutely confident that this is true no matter what.
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke: I totally should have known and should have seen that you were upset; I am sorry for my clueless question in response to your well-deserved anger.
Kropacetic
@WaterGirl: Sweet
MisterDancer
@The Thin Black Duke: To the folx upset about Duke’s formulation of “White People,” two things — and I’m just speaking for myself, having skimmed this comment thread:
1) I get that it hurts. It also hurts to see what happened yesterday, and to see people say, basically, #NotAllWhites. Come on, y’all. COME ON.
2) “In using the term white man I am seeking to describe in general terms the Negro’s adversary. I seek not to categorize all white people by any use of the term white man.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., “A New Sense of Direction (1968)“
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: Literally no one could do that except a privileged, wealthy white man. NO ONE.
James E Powell
@Matt McIrvin:
I agree with Loomis on this, that is, I have not watched any of it, not even clips. But others may want to watch. Because they want to know, or as Duncan Black used to say about the Sunday shows, to document the atrocities. Others have what Conrad called a fascination with the abomination.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If you want to know what Lithwick meant by “going to the mat,” take a look at the linked article and her earlier coverage of the hearings that she links in the article. I did the best I could to capture the gist without outright IP theft, but my excerpt doesn’t do it justice. She goes into detail. You might disagree with her, but it’s not Green Lanternism or whatever.
Kropacetic
If you were deeply offended by TBD’s statement, I recommend voluntarily mustering one tenth of one percent of the fortitude that’s being DEMANDED of KBJ. Should be more than sufficient.
Ruckus
@Starfish:
True.
I believe I understand the feelings expressed in this post, this is an attack upon a very intelligent woman who seems to me to be an amazingly great choice for the job.
But.
As a few have stated Dick Durbin doesn’t have the actual power to tell senators what they can and can’t say when they have the floor. They have the right to be sanctimonious, racist assholes. As they have shown that they are. So either their constituents can reelect them because they like sanctimonious, racist assholes representing them or they can elect someone else. Their constituents seem to have shown us that they like sanctimonious, racist assholes representing them and in this country we have the right to prove that we are or are not sanctimonious, racist assholes. Life would be better if they weren’t but they are.
Ella in New Mexico
Jackson faces tight confirmation vote as Graham signals ‘no’ vote and GOP opposition stiffens
Quote:
He’s so FROTHING ANGRY at Biden for some reason and pretends to blame it on something he did long ago–before he referred to Joe as one of his best friends and a very good and decent man (if I recall the video). His fight with Biden has NOTHIING to do with KJB being qualified to serve on SCOTUS, why does that fly with his constituents?
Will someone please out this whiny ass petty little bitch–for WHATEVER terrible skeletons in his closet he’s letting abscess inside him– so he can stop transforming all his self loathing into inflicting pain and suffering on others?
Felanius Kootea
@Ella in New Mexico: His vote is not needed. None of their votes are. He should take his deranged self to the vet to check for rabies.
I can’t get over how sane and prescient Graham seemed on Trevor Noah’s show ages ago over the disaster that would follow if Trump was elected. He should have listened to himself.
ETA: And if another Supreme Court opening emerged and Childs was nominated, I bet he wouldn’t vote to confirm her either.
Ruckus
@The Thin Black Duke:
I am a white old fart. I was not offended. I took it in the spirit it was intended. This entire situation is unsettling, to say the very least. An amazingly talented woman, with a resume that anyone should be proud of is up for a very high job in our government. She is a better candidate than anyone on the opposing side already serving. Far, far better. She should never, ever be treated like this, it’s disrespectful at the very least. But it shows us, as if we didn’t already know, what shitty human beings some of our elected representatives and citizens are. That some might not react in “proper society manner” to her treatment here and elsewhere is understandable. She has been treated like no human should be, but then she is in front of human beings of the lowest specifications – racist fucks. I’ll never ask that anyone treat them better, because they don’t deserve it and they prove it on a regular basis.
Betty Cracker
@Ella in New Mexico: I think Graham is angry at Biden because Biden’s very existence reminds Graham of what a craven, gutless, inconstant worm he (Graham) is. I know the video you’re referring to, where Graham gushes over Biden. I think Graham sincerely had a great deal of affection for Biden when he recorded that. But Graham’s compulsion to attach himself to power and maintain his own power base is stronger than any other force in his life. On some level, he understands that about himself and isn’t happy about being reminded of it. Just my theory!
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
“Bashing them”.
Again- it isn’t complicated- stick up for your people. Politicians are professional, full time advocates. No one should have to tell them this. It should be like breathing.
No histrionics, no bashing, I just want them to behave like the advocates they claim to be. Don’t leave her up there alone for 3 days, like a fucking pinata.
She did great! She’s a pro and she ably and gracefully defended herself but why in God’s name is she doing it alone?
It’s a reasonable demand.
Chief Oshkosh
@UncleEbeneezer: Sure, ignore the shitty behavior of the louts if that gets the job done. But then don’t bleat about it later like some little twerp (which is exactly how Durbin comes across). FFS, look down at your right hand, Senator Durbin – OMG! -what is that thing you’re holding?! That’s…that’s a gavel!! Run away! Run away!
@Omnes Omnibus: Does shitty behavior like what we’re seeing here happen at the hearings of the other nominees? No? Does it get covered nonstop in the press? No? Then what is your point
But at the end of the day, we all seem to be thoroughly pissed off at the shitheel Republican Senators. Good. We at least agree on that. They are simply awful human beings. I really hope they suffer the heartbreak of psoriasis, genital warts, and worse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I read the linked article. I don’t see anything she suggests that would have, in my opinion, created an effective counter-theatre to what Cruz and Hawley were doing.
I see that as intended for an audience of lawyers and deeply engaged lay-folk, not a way to push back against the raw base politics of Tucker Carlson’s world. I have no idea how to make proverbial normies care about the Supreme Court. The indifference of the broad left to the courts has been a head-scratching, forehead slapping mystery to me since 2000 at least, but I’m not gonna start screaming at Dick Durbin et al for not using their five minute slots to conduct mini-seminars on ‘a progressive theory of jurisprudence’.
and I’m a Lithwick fan, I just think she’s mis-diagnosing the problem here
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
What is that unimposing little fish that attaches itself to much larger fish so that it doesn’t have to do much to move, feed, exist?
That is Graham. A useless little fish, attaching itself to bigger fish, because that’s as good and as much as it understands.
Kay
She’s a GREAT nominee. I couldn’t be prouder. I want her publicly and proudly defended.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
against the passivity of the bulk of the American people, Obama himself struggled in vain
schrodingers_cat
@Kay:
They did stand up for her. But I can’t make you hear what you don’t want to hear.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Sure they did. Here’s two Senate dems who went to the ridiculous “Punchbowl” to say she hadn’t been “adequately prepared” for being accused of being a pedophile for 3 days. They’re ass covering. Without using their names.
The refusal to accept responsibility for performing even the minimum requirements of their jobs is not good, and it’s getting worse.
Kay
Two judiciary Dems say she did’nt hold up that well the 2nd day of the undefended attack but got better the third day.
They’re spectators, apparently. Audience members. Just ridiculous.
Can we replace these people with people who see politics as part of their job?
Chief Oshkosh
@oldgold: No, it’s not. The gavel is just a symbol. Every committee meeting has rules. Every committee has a chair to ensure that, among other things, the committee members follow the rules. Sometimes this requires making judgments that can be in gray areas. Sometimes there is no judgment needed at all. Speaking longer than allowed time, or speaking out of order, are two of the more black-and-white (pun unintended) transgressions. It is relatively unnoticeable, relatively ordinary, for a chair to call time or out-of-order on a member who goes over time or speaks out of order. It can be extraordinary for a chair to allow those transgression to occur repeatedly.
marcopolo
@Kay: Kay, I sure hope to meet you someday at a BJ meet up. Even if that means driving all the way from StL to Ohio and spending the night somewhere. I so appreciate your insight & POV.
Dan B
@The Thin Black Duke: It is painful reading about the GOP’s increasing plunge into hate. It’s appalling in our turbulent times that they attack a well mannered black woman who wants to fix the ills of the world. They truly are evil.
If I were a black person watching the GOP attacks and weak Dem response I would not see a strategy to get her on the court. A short term win at what long term loss? But I’m speculating. Getting Katanji Brown Jackson on the court will be sweet.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Since this is her area of expertise, maybe she knows something you don’t? I mean, I know it’s unlikely, but there’s always a chance. ;)
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t have any idea how to make normies care about the SCOTUS either, but since we’ve been wondering that for upwards of two decades, maybe it’s time to try something new? Maybe even try to “lay out any kind of theory for progressive jurisprudence, or even a coherent theory for the role of an unelected judiciary in a constitutional democracy”? Maybe that’s so crazy it could work!
I’ll just urge anyone else who’s interested to go read Lithwick’s coverage for themselves. It’s a detailed take on how the hearings could have been used to better defend KBJ, more effectively communicate a liberal judicial philosophy, and more fully understand the looming threat to our fundamental rights. She gets into specifics. You can disagree with her or be ambivalent about her prescription. But she lays it out, and it’s not “do something!” and it’s not “clap harder!” either.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chief Oshkosh: are we talking about the courts as a legal space or a political space? Because Lithwick is certainly an expert on the former, but what she, and we, are talking about is the latter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: okay, sounds like you’re widening out to a much broader, long-term political and communications strategy, while I see the topic as these three days of intense, weirdly chopped-up, televised hearings.
Ksmiami
@Ruckus: A Remora fish… it attaches itself to sharks etc and gets its life from a more powerful predator- I think this description is exactly fitting for Lindsay loser Graham
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: Please cool it on the comments that amount to “you are blind and stupid”. They don’t advance your argument.
Chief Oshkosh
@Another Scott:
Maybe I’m just a practical proximist, but that’s just wrong. Not only can Durbin control the members of the committee, it is actually his job to control the members of the committee with regards to committee rules. It is literally the job of a chair to ensure that committee members follow the agreed-upon rules. Usually this is done by speaking words like “you are out of order” or “you have gone beyond time.” In collegial, professional settings, usually those modest and indifferent admonitions are all that it needed to get back to business. In the Senate hearing, with shitbirds like Cruz breaking the rules, it may require that the chair actually bang the gavel, then escalate to next steps, proscribed in the rules, etc., until the poor behavior is controlled. This is actually how committees work everyday, all day, all over the world.
I don’t think I’m Dem bashing to point that out.
Ksmiami
@Kay: I really think a lot of our issues stem from the fact that most of our Senators etc haven’t played team sports. Seriously
Zelma
@Betty Cracker:
I also think that Graham is angry because Biden chose not to let bygones be bygones after he won. At one point, he made it quite clear that his friendship with Lindsey was over. So Lindsey was shut out of a path to leech onto power. That probably hurt.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: JFC. (The Punchbowl thing…)
Chief Oshkosh
@Fake Irishman: I hear what you’re saying , but that just means that Durbin doesn’t suck at chairing committees as long as everyone follows the rules. That’s not entirely relevant to the issues at hand with this specific hearing.
germy
I didn’t know that
Betty Cracker
@Zelma: Good point. I’d forgotten that. Graham apparently tried to smooth things over and was rebuffed: (BI)
WAS. Yeah, that would sting.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
speaking of legal questions I can’t understand…. A private citizen can file a RICO case? against another private citizen? I studied RICO by watching the Sopranos, and this doesn’t sound cricket
schrodingers_cat
@Dan B: Well you are putting words in my mouth, Mr. Tone Police II.
There are plenty of videos of elected Democrats, including those on Judiciary Committee, defending Judge Jackson.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I’ll be damned. For lots of reasons. But this surprises me.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I no longer trust them to even have the votes. Schumer says something now I think “yeah, whatever, we’ll see”.
She’ll be a great justice. Let’s hope they can count to 50.
Another Scott
@Chief Oshkosh:
Maybe I’m missing it, but I don’t see some sort of Gavel of Justice power for the chair in the Judiciary Hearing Rules. Maybe they’re somewhere else.
Of maybe they’re just norms that sensible people follow.
Dunno.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so if Amy Klobuchar had used her however many minutes to discuss the legal underpinnings of Griswold, or Whitehouse has used his time to discuss why Buckley vs Veleo (sp?), Ted Cruz would have put down his scary picture book? And Josh Hawley would have stopped talking about child porn?
reading between the lines of Lithwick’s piece and a lot of comments here, I see a lot of people who wanted Democrats to shout down Cruz, Hawley et al, and for it to work with Dem and Dem-leaning voters the way their nasty histrionics work with their voters, but they don’t want to say that’s what they want, even to themselves, because they know it wouldn’t have worked
It sucks. It sucks that the best, and the not too bad, lack all conviction and the worst are overflowing with passionate intensity. But I don’t blame Dick Durbin for it.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just saw this clip from today’s hearing where Senator Whitehouse exposes one of the witnesses the Republicans called — the AG of Alabama — as an election conspiracy kook. If you tire of standing up and knocking over strawmen, take a look:
That’s one way to push back against the QAnon garbage the Republicans on the committee are packaging up and mainstreaming on Fox News. No shouting or histrionics required!
Felanius Kootea
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No. Just no. I chair committees as part of my job as a professor. No, I’m no senator, but I know how to ask people to keep to time, respectfully, and how to let them know that they are out of order when they are and that there are consequences for flouting the rules. People can get very heated over what looks like nothing in academia, so I’ve actually had to do this.
Asking Dick Durbin to use the gavel or be prepared to cut off mikes when someone flouts the rules, to show a candidate who is worthy and deserves respect and support that there are many people who see her as worthy of respect and support isn’t too much to ask for. It has nothing to do with gaming things out for voters later but everything to do with empathy and decency in the moment. We all know the Republicans are crazy. How do we handle that and make people who are on our side not feel like they were just flattened by a steamroller, with inadequate support?
I can’t even with the news Kay shared about some judiciary Dems running to Punchbowl news to distance themselves from the nominee, instead of repeating that her sentencing record is within norms and even better than some Trump appointees’.
Jesus Christ!
Ruckus
@Ksmiami:
Thank You.
I knew the answer when I asked. I wanted the description to be more important than the name, but I also wanted people to think about my description more than the dictionary version because while both are valid, my aim was at graham, rather than at the fish.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
As I understand it the participants – senators are supposed to follow the simple rules. There really isn’t a set limitation on behavior, other than be adults and give way at the end of your time. We’ve had guns pulled, people attacked with canes, etc in congress. We, as a country decided a while ago that we should act a bit more adult in the countries chambers, but if I’m not mistaken the rules allow a lot of leeway. Durbin could have gaveled the offenders but I don’t think that is actually within the rules. It’s more like Robert’s Rules of Order and Robert is on vacation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: okay
Once again you and I see the problem and solution differently
How does this undo anything KBJ went through yesterday or the day before ?
But I guess if the point is to make the hyper engaged feel better, that’s a win
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It doesn’t undo anything that happened previously, but it does provide an example of how to push back effectively against garbage attacks — without the shouting and histrionics you suspect people who disagree with you secretly crave. Whitehouse impeached the fuck out of that witness, and kudos to him!
Geminid
@Kropacetic: How do you know that the commenter you are berating hasn’t already mustered up one tenth of a per cent of the fortitude Judge Jackson has shown, and more, just to live his life. I haven’t, but I think he has.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: You and I have fundamentally differing views of what’s effective in politics.
Kropacetic
@Geminid: Look closer. I was agreeing with the commenter I responded to and my statement was generalized, not targeted at any individual.
Kropacetic
@Kropacetic: Just adding this is why I try to avoid “you” to speak about people generally; but I forget from time to time, as one does.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It isn’t about what’s “effective”, it’s about what’s right. They don’t have to think about it at all- just act like advocates.
What could they possibly lose? They (supposedly) have the votes. To tiring? Too much effort? What is the downside of defending their nominee?
I swear to God it’s like they barely have the energy to show up. Thank God Corey Booker managed to show us what it looks like- I had forgotten, it’s been so long since any of them acted like they had a pulse.
Do they care about this? How can they persuade anyone else to care about it when they seem ambivalent themselves?
sab
@Kay: They think it gives them photographic evidence that the other guys are assholes. They forget that it gives the other guys evidence that they are weak and cannot defend their own. I listened to most of the hearings and I was speechless with rage at Durbin.
A Good Woman
I watched the sh*tshow yesterday and most of today’s event. Whitehouse was great putting the needle to the AL AG. As noted elsewhere, no histrionics, no drama when he did.
Durbin is my Senator and IMMHO he needs to spend time with Schiff, who I think understands how to keep control of a committee.
As for all those District and Appeal judges; great, wonderful, I am thrilled to pieces that we are countering the efforts of the previous administration to stack the courts with Fed Soc members. That said — SCOTUS is beyond those courts. A nominee to SCOTUS is a BFD, especially a ground breaker like Judge Jackson. It’s a made-for-a-live-circus event unlike the others. It invites the grandstanding and thuggery that was on display, all targeting the folks at home. My heart broke at all the appalling, in-your-face-on-live-TV racism and misogynoir in evidence during her testimony. I have no doubt every R and most of the Ds were performing for sound bites in election ads and/or on their preferred network.
Frankly, I would not bet the ranch on her confirmation at this point. If she wins it will be either because Harris casts a tie breaking vote, or Collins and/or Murkowski decide to vote for her. I am going to assume that Manchinema will vote for her too.
Miss Bianca
@LongHairedWeirdo:
QFT
Miss Bianca
@The Thin Black Duke:
No. No, I don’t. I only hope to God she still thinks a Supreme Court Justiceship is worth going through what she’s going through, in the end.
Geminid
@Kropacetic: I apologize for misreading your comment.
sab
@sab: Also too, I love Biden as president, but best thing Obama ever did was getting Biden off Judiciary commitee. Republicans played for keeps. I don’t even know what Dems played for. I still don’t know. Nor did Biden..
Kropacetic
@Geminid: Ha, no worries, could have been clearer.
Another Scott
Another take – BallsandStrikes:
Along with that is the apparently common criticism that most of the Democrats (even those who didn’t cry to Punchbowl) are doing it rong.
The way to keep monsters from acting like monsters in Committee hearings is to convince voters to elect better people.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
TriassicSands
A few final words.
Judge Jackson offered the finest example of “judicial temperament” I’ve ever seen.
There is a chance she won’t get a single Republican vote. Contrast that with the performance of Judge Kavanaugh — surely the finest example of a complete absense of judicial temperament in the history of Senate judicial confirmation hearings — and his 100% Republican support for confirmation.
Paul in KY
@Felanius Kootea: I generally agree that our Dem senators on the committee (especially the chair) haven’t covered themselves in glory in the hearings. The only caveat (to me) is that a US Senator (even a craven, shitbird one) is a much different beast than the personnel who inhabited your committees.