The Senate Judiciary Committee met earlier today to vote to send Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the full chamber. They’re recessed right now but expected to hold the vote today. Here’s an excerpt from CNN’s live blog of the proceedings:
Blackburn and Durbin spar over criticism that Republicans asked “vile” and “baseless” questions during hearing
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, criticized Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, who she said “repeatedly dressed down” Republicans for asking “tough questions” during Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings.
Blackburn said that Durbin called some of the questions by Republicans “vile” and “baseless” despite the fact that she believed they were raising “legitimate concerns” about child pornography sentences handed down by Jackson. Blackburn added that Republicans on the committee made reasonable requests for documents from these cases that were not turned over.
Blackburn said these “questions are not attacks” and it would be a “dereliction of duty not to ask tough questions.”
After she was finished, Durbin responded, stating that it was his opinion that the majority of questions for Jackson from Republicans were fair and respectful. He noted that he “never named a name” when he criticized the GOP questions.
Durbin then reiterated his point that he thinks some of the Republican questions went “too far” and “don’t reflect the reality of who [Judge Jackson] is or what she’s accomplished.”
Goddammit. I like Durbin — he’s one of the good guys. But this illustrates why someone like Senator Whitehouse should have chaired this committee instead of Durbin.
Democrats — especially those in safe states — should never for one second praise Republicans by saying most of their questions were fair and respectful, which #1, isn’t true, and #2, isn’t a benefit of the doubt Republicans earned during their absolutely shameful campaign to smear KBJ. The Republicans treated the judge abominably. That’s the story, and it shouldn’t be undermined by polite hemming.
Also, “Never named a name” — why the fuck not? Aaaaurrrrgh. I don’t know why we’re so fucking bad at this. Did I say “spork” up top? You can probably give someone a nasty scratch with a spork. Let’s make that an overripe banana. Without the peel.
Open thread.
PS: The committee deadlocked as I was writing this, but CNN says Dems will hold a procedural vote to advance the nomination.
Jeffro
Agreed on all counts, Betty. The public already knows which party is sane and which one isn’t; there’s no need to bend over backwards trying to appear reasonable, not ‘name names’, etc.
The Rs are just fine acting out – it’s what their base loves and expects.
The Ds would get a lot more support from their base if they’d throw a fucking punch once in a while.
Kelly
Name and shame, eventually the mainstream media might deign to notice.
Alison Rose ???
Agree 100%. This whole “my friend across the aisle” vibe needs to go the way of all flesh.
Since it’s an OT, Randy Rainbow has something to say to DeSantis. I want someone to blast this song all day long outside his office.
delk
I bet Marsha Blackburn was in on those cocaine orgies.
Chief Oshkosh
Durbin is of a past era. Things change, Senator. Please readjust your sights. Nobody is asking you to become something you’re not. However, we are asking that you quit pretending the other side is something it never was.
schrodingers_cat
Furrowed brows Collins is going to vote Ketanji Brown Jackson, that’s what was attained by Durbin pulling his punches.
Old School
Further down on that page at CNN:
I thought filibusters of Supreme Court justices were done away with. Have they been brought back?
Betty Cracker
@Old School: I think it’s to do with the fact that the Senate is 50/50. Let’s just hope the Senatortoise from KY doesn’t figure out a way to block this nomination altogether because, as we know, he would absolutely do that if he could.
Chief Oshkosh
@schrodingers_cat: We’ll see.
mrmoshpotato
LMAO!
Chief Oshkosh
@delk: You are a bad, bad person.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: If that’s all it bought, the price is too high. In 2022, no one should give a flying fuck if the vote is “bipartisan.”
schrodingers_cat
@Chief Oshkosh: It was in the NYT.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jeffro:
Since Dems throw punches frequently, I am afraid ‘once in awhile’ would have to be ‘every single time.’ Any time a Dem is less than fiery, all previous times Dems were fiery flushes down the memory hole. Because the Dem base is not monolithic, there is a significant portion of that Base that demands that Dems always sound like the adults in the room, and elects people accordingly.
Ishiyama
Word Association: fill in the blank “________ Dems”.
(Heard most frequently: gutless.)
It is important not just to fight, but to be seen to fight.
debbie
@delk:
That would explain that hair. ?
Baud
As a rank partisan, I would enjoy a good show. But Jackson’s polling numbers favor the Dems and the GOP is stuck with their loyal 27%. Hard to argue with those results.
Hilbertsubspace
“Questions are not attacks”
Correct response: “How can you be that dumb?”
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck: I agree.
jonas
@Old School:
Not a filibuster — one of the (D) committee members was unexpectedly absent due to a late flight or something like that and everyone has to vote in person.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro:
I disagree–I’ve heard a bunch of people who consider themselves reasonable centrist NPR-listener types talk about how the Democrats have moved to the extreme left and are really crazy now. They don’t give details. I frankly suspect it’s about things like trans rights and immigration.
sherparick
@Chief Oshkosh: Durbin was born in 1944, so just a little younger than President Biden and Speaker Pelosi, about the same age as Senator Schumer. He has been in the Senate since 1996, & although a dying breed at the time, there were still a few Republican Moderates in the Senate then (Chaffee, Jeffords, Collins, & Snowe all voted to acquit Bill Clinton of the impeachment – all New Englanders & only Collins is still active politically). So Durbin is an institutionalist, and like many white Democratic politicians whose districts & states that voted for Republican Regan & Bush senior in 1980s, he has a felt need to attract those white former Democrats who have become more & more Republican over time. Republicans, who look at Democrats as the party of minorities, don’t want or need their buy in, but Democrats for some reason have this psychological need to get Republican support for their policies (something the current crop of Republicans will never give them). For more on this subject, follow Steve M on twitter or at his blog: https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Come on finger wagging and shit posting on Twitter is more important than getting her confirmed.
MisterDancer
@Old School: The “done away with” is that the threshold is now lower:
“Filibuster” is just a procedural process that the Senate came up with. It’s really about votes, and the less we talk about “Filibusters” the clearer the actual processes in the Senate — and who’s really at-fault — become, in my opinion.
(To be complete: VP Harris becomes the 51st vote if the Senate is tied.)
randy khan
@Old School:
It’s terrible writing. The Republicans changed the rules on votes to end debate aka cloture for Supreme Court Justices to push Gorsuch through in 2017. The Dems left those rules in place because, well, of course they should have.
You could argue (not that I would) that there’s a filibuster in effect until the cloture vote, but that’s really not the current usage, and hasn’t been for quite a while.
Betty Cracker
@Alison Rose ???: Wow, his best one yet! :-)
Baud
That’s not really spork terminology either.
randy khan
Durbin should have told Blackburn that there’s a difference between tough questions and baseless attacks, and that when Republicans learn the difference she can complain about what he says.
gene108
@Frankensteinbeck:
Voting for the adults in the room is part of it, but because the base is not monolithic there is disagreement on what kind of punch to throw and where it should land.
Is police reform the most important punch to throw?
Is the environment the most important punch to throw?
Is being pro-labor the most important punch to throw?
Raven
@delk: Assuming you are male, “not with your unit”!!!
VeniceRiley
I have an unquenchable rage for all white fascists today
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I think that distorted view of the Democratic party is caused by prolonged and incessant repetition by Republicans and their media minions. The few Republican voters I know have swallowed it whole. They did not like or neccesarily respect Trump, but they voted for him as the lesser of two evils.
Leaning into this “negative partisanship” is really the only path Republicans have to victory in purple states and congressional districts. Their own positive platform is just pathetic.
Fake Irishman
@Old School:
yes,
but you still need a majority to vote to close debate. (You just need 50+1 to stop the filibuster, not 60) when cloture is achieved, there is a time for debate to continue (I believe 30 hours for sc justices) divided between the majority and minority. Then they will hold the final vote on confirmation.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose ???: So good!
Betty
The behavior with regard to this nomination is nothing short of a declaration of war. There is no point in pretending otherwise. The comments from Graham and Cuz today were reprehensible.
Raven
I From 2 threads back :“the Democrats are sell-outs”
zhena gogolia
@Betty: Oh, God, what did they say? I don’t want to know.
gene108
@randy khan:
Democrats can’t win a mud slinging contest with Republicans.
Republicans have more mud and bullshit on their side, plus a lot more people willing and eager to get their hands dirty to throw shit everywhere.
delk
@Raven: male, but my last orgy was back in the ‘80’s ?
Fake Irishman
@Betty Cracker:
he can’t. These votes sometimes deadlock in committee because the committee is tied in representation like the chamber. at that point, a discharge vote is necessary to advance the nomination to the floor. There are roughly other judges waiting to get out on the floor due to the need for a discharge vote in addition to the SC nominee.
Kay
And as you can see, the comity is reciprocal!
Don’t they get tired of shaking hands and then getting a punch in the face in return?
zhena gogolia
Did we hear whether the NYC meetup happened yesterday?
Fake Irishman
@Betty:
Graham is scum, but he has been quietly voting to advance the vast majority of Biden’s judges on to the floor over the last year. That’s saved a considerable amount of floor time. (The American constitution society has a blog called “on the bench” where you can follow this stuff.)
zhena gogolia
So I guess people here want our reps to start acting like juvenile assholes. Good to know.
Edmund Dantes
@Betty: graham is already out saying if the gop had been in charge they never would have had hearings for Jackson.
So Dem institutionalists might want to start paying attention to the road the gop is saying they will go down.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: It absolutely is spork-like in response to the goddamned bucket of sludge those demented fuck-sticks dumped on the judge’s head. But one can’t name names or fail to note that the majority of the questions were respectful and relevant. Not even when Republicans spent the better part of a week accusing a respected jurist of being a pedophile coddler — knowing as they do that a not-insignificant portion of the “base” they’re playing to with that shit are armed, violent cultists.
Kay
Fake Irishman
@Chief Oshkosh:
in durbin’s defense, he has changed: the GOP threw out blue slip approvals for circuit court nominees in 2017. He’s returned the favor and Biden is getting more circuit court picks through because of it.
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
He said some of the questions were “vile and baseless”. All he has do is defend his own words.
Alison Rose ???
@Betty Cracker: Right??? Made my gay heart very happy
Fake Irishman
@Fake Irishman:
also, Durbin supported Reid in 2014 to blow up the filibuster for circuit and district court picks. That’s why the good guys have a majority on the DC circuit (and probably the ninth, second and first circuits) today. The Dems moved nearly 90 judges in 2014.
delk
If there is any mudslinging, Marsha could put that Home Ec degree to use and offer tips on how to get rid of the stains.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: and then what would happen?
Fake Irishman
@Edmund Dantes:
and if the GOP had run the senate, Biden would have nominated that judge from South Carolina. (And they already made this move with Garland, it’s hardly new)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Edmund Dantes:
Maybe the Dem institutionalist will figure out it’s really important to win more Senate elections.
Actually, I suspect they already fucking know that.
trollhattan
Enjoy an owl checking over a weathercam.
Splitting Image
@Kay:
In fairness, the Republican party is full of people who describe themselves as conservative Christians but who can’t define what either of those things are.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He would sound like he believes in something. You know, they ask their voters and supporters to go out and sell this stuff. Maybe they could try selling it themselves. Their VOTERS shouldn’t be more committed to their beliefs and agenda than they are, and they won’t be.
Marsha Blackburn is speaking to her base. Democrats are permitted to do that too. No one else pays any attention to any of this. The “sporadic” voters and “independents” they are supposedly courting have no idea any of this is going on.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@VeniceRiley:
paul w, chicago
sorry betty, but i live in illinois and have been watching durbin since he was a congress critter from central illinois. he’s a reliable D vote to be sure, but he’s been a spineless fucking milquetoast his entire career who’s 1st instinct the minute some asshole republican complains he’s being mean is to roll over and apologize profusely.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay:Joe Biden is indeed fulfilling a promise to his base by nominating Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court. Actions speak louder than words.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
As part of the Democratic base, I care more about getting a Justice confirmed to the USSC than whether Dick Durbin was mean enough to Marsha Blackburn in a committee meeting. But then I’m not as wedded to the “DEMOCRATS ARE DOING IT WRONG!” narrative as you are lately.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
The spork is in the hand of the beholder.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Sorry. Don’t agree. They have to be political actors in addition to being functionaries. It’s not hard. They don’t have to poll on it or fret about it. It’s pretty simple. Defend your people. When they attack your judge as a pedophile you’re allowed to defend her. Required to defend her, in my view. The questions were vile and baseless. He said it. He should stick to it if he meant it.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Define the Democratic base? I am the base too, I am elected to my town’s Committee and am going to be delegate this summer at the state convention. I prefer action to raving and ranting like a lunatic.
You don’t speak for me.
kindness
@Fake Irishman: Thank goodness. When Senator Lehey ran the Committee, he reinstated the 2 Blue Slip rule making many of Obama’s nominees unable to get a hearing.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What’s the standard here? Getting 50 Democrats to support Biden’s completely qualified nominee is now all they have to do? It isn’t a choice. It’s not “be good advocates” OR “confirm the nominee”. I think they can do both. Can they not? Why are they senators then? They should work in the executive branch, as employees.
JAFD
@zhena gogolia: It did. Pics coming.
Matt McIrvin
So… is Brown Jackson’s nomination actually doomed now or is this some procedural hiccup? I can’t tell from the news stories.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
No.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Biden’s polling with the base is terrible. If they don’t fix that they are going to get clobbered. And before you say it – his second largest drop (young people is first) is with African Americans.
This is not a successful political approach. It’s not good. It’s not working. I expect them to work at least as hard on the political end as they ask ordinary people to. They don’t have to! 51 votes will get it done. But I am of the opinion that advocacy is a big part of their job. If it’s not then we’ll save a lot of time on speeches and campaigns and advertising and they can confer exclusively with other senators. Until they lose. Then they won’t be worried about comity in the senate, because they won’t be there.
Baud
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: So the base is black people and young people?
schrodingers_cat
Murkowski is going to vote for KBJ
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Mitt Romney is a yes as well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: good news, I’m actually more surprised at Collins, who has shown just how partisan she is underneath the mask, and doesn’t have to run again for a while, if ever, but I suspect that part of Collins’ larger act is convincing herself she’s thoughtful and moderate and independent and shi
@schrodingers_cat: Okay, I would’ve lost that bet
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Well that tears it. Glad we’re nailing down the moderate Republican vote in Alaska.
Jeffro
Not getting your gist here, unless it’s agreement. I’m good with them throwing punches every single time.
Sure Lurkalot
Here’s a Republican voter disgusted with the way Brown Jackson was treated.
He doesn’t sound juvenile to me. Just making sense. We can too.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t know- which part of the base are we deeming completely unimportant this week?
It’s a coalition. They’re all important. Which Democratic politicians used to know, but no longer do apparently.
Betty Cracker
Dems on the committee don’t have to act like juvenile assholes or rant and rave like a lunatic to defend KBJ’s nomination in the manner she — and we — deserve. That’s a strawman.
“Vile” and “baseless” is even a good start. Call out the people who leveled vile attacks at the judge. Explain why insinuating that KBJ is pro-pedophile is not only baseless but dangerous as fuck since it’s a dog-whistle to a demented, violent Republican cult.
This weekend, the NY Post published an incredibly misleading smear piece on KBJ that referenced the Judicial Committee Republicans’ gross attacks. I’m sure Fox News and the other Murdoch outlets are singing from the same hymnal.
I understand Dems don’t have their own partisan media echo chamber, but that just underscores the importance of using the high-profile venues they do have to push back on this garbage in an aggressive, unambiguous way.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Free moderate creds to be had.
Jeffro
Well…those folks don’t sound like reliable Democrats to me, then. I mean, if they’re frequent NPR listeners, that’s kind of a tell.
Jeffro
@VeniceRiley: (high five) you and me both
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Especially because the “pedophile” smear is not a one-off. They’re using it for everyone, from public school teachers to Disney employees. This is all of a piece. It’s all the same culture war.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not opposed to political theatre. Cory Booker’s a little too emo and Jesus-y for my taste, but I know a lot of people loved that, including apparently Justice Brown Jackson. Kind of surprised Hirono or Klobuchar didn’t get snarkier. I often miss Al Franken. I wish Sheldon Whitehouse had used some of that angry Puritan energy on Ted Cruz and saved the dark money stuff for a MSNBC hit– which probably would have had more viewers. But really, some of you– never mind stepping back from the trees to appreciate the forest– some of you are bark-inspectors.
Jeffro
@Kay: exactly.
I’m not saying Dems need to go frothing-mouth berserk like the Republicans. But they all, all the time, need to a) understand what they’re really dealing with here re: today’s GQP and b) fire first if possible and fire back at all times.
The Rs understand nothing else.
Jeffro
Um, maybe both?? He could do both? (or what Kay already said at #67)
Baud
Just curious. Did anyone actually watch the hearing, or is this all based on CNN’s reporting?
Kay
@Jeffro:
It isn’t about “the R’s” for me. They knew they had votes to confirm. The only fucking reason they are there is to be advocates, because the vote was going to happen. Be an advocate. Take a side. It shouldn’t have to be “performative”. It should be real.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Nicolle Wallace showed a poll today, which I can’t find myself, showing that support for KBJ actually went up during the hearings.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I asked you a question, you didn’t give me a direct answer so I was just trying to make sure that I understood what you said.
Don’t put words in my mouth and don’t speak for me. Speak for yourself.
Steeplejack
On Twitter yesterday, but from a town hall on March 25:
There is video at this link. What is amazing—and slightly sickening—is that when the voter says that last part, at about 0:30—Grassley gets a beaming, childlike grin on his face, inappropriate to the situation and devoid of anything except preening self-regard. Ugh.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: The rabid Mark Levin expressed a contrarian view while hollering about the need for a special prosecutor for Hunter Biden:
Levin is full of shit anyway, but it was funny to hear just now.
lowtechcyclist
@Frankensteinbeck:
When do they do this when it would actually be noticed??
They’re on teevee every damn Sunday morning. Do they throw punches then??
Or during these KBJ hearings that have drawn a great deal of media attention: tell me about the punches they’ve thrown during these hearings.
Hard to flush something down the memory hole when you’ve never heard about it to begin with.
We’re well past the point where being the adults in the room means unequivocally calling out the Republican party for what it is: an incipient fascist organization that is only interested in power for itself and its backers, and revenge on everyone that’s opposed it, and zero interest in solving the actual problems this country is faced with.
That’s the only way to be the adults in the room right now. That’s the moment of history we’re in.
Kay
And I am more worried about Democrats political performance than I was. That’s rational. They’re not doing well. How else do I know? I have seen them do better. I don’t want them to get clobbered! But we can’t do this alone, just thru force of will. They are going to have to help.
SiubhanDuinne
FWIW, Murkowski and Mittens have said they’ll vote for Judge Jackson.
ETA: As usual, in with
breakinglimping news well after others. Schrödinger’s Cat got there a while ago.Baud
There was a story the other day that McConnell was whipping the GOP to oppose Jackson. Sounds like that effort was unsuccessful with the only people who needed persuading.
Brachiator
@lowtechcyclist:
I don’t know who came up with this “adults in the room framing,” but it’s bullshit.
Fuck the Republicans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
everybody gets that the price of gas (or the arrival of a new Covid variant) will have a far greater effect on mid-term votes than anything that happened in the Senate in the last two weeks, right? and there’s not much Dick Durbin, Joe Biden or any other Democrat (not even… oh, never mind) can or could do about those things
a woman named Ketanji is about to be elevated to the Supreme Court, where odds are she will be for the next thirty years
take the win, don’t let Ted Cruz rob you of your joy
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Why not both?
Kay
@Brachiator:
It made perfect sense in 2018. I don’t think it makes much sense for 2022 though. They can court all the moderates they want. If they don’t do better than 75% approval with Democrats they’re going to get clobbered.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
I was going to ask, based on what. But I note your examples. What do these people want from their elected officials?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steeplejack: because one matters and one doesn’t
Ksmiami
@lowtechcyclist: even Biden needs to call the GOP Putin’s American ally. Make the GOP as toxic as anthrax
Kay
I can stand it with Biden who makes hard decisions and who mostly does a good job, but hard decisions aren’t always popular. But if you’re a senator from a blue state and you’re there anyway? That’s not a hard call for me. It should be like breathing to these people. Natural, not “performative”. Real.
Ted Cruz does not ACTUALLY believe this judge is a pedophile. He knows that’s a lie. That’s “performative”. But Durbin really believes she’s great! It’s not a performance at all! He can tell the truth!
Steeplejack
* Spork technology *
For reasons that we don’t really need to go into at this time, I have had occasion recently to become something of an expert on the spork, a useful but much maligned utensil. Recommendations:
Exhibit A: Six inches long, 18/10 stainless. Perhaps too short for some, good for kids, especially the Technicolor variants.
Exhibit B: About 7½", also 18/10 stainless. Better hand-feel than Exhibit A.
Exhibit C: Luxurious Caesna model from Crate & Barrel. Seven inches long. The Cadillac Escalade of sporks for your favorite oligarch. Tines slightly too long.
gwangung
@Kay: Blackburn thinks she knows how to answer it…and she’ll always give the wrong answer.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
Snow peak or go home!
Chief Oshkosh
@zhena gogolia: Who is saying that here? I missed it.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Fuck off with that lightweight (and expensive) camping bullshit. I’m talking everyday home use.
Brachiator
@Baud:
I watched a bit this morning. Lindsay Graham tried to paint Jackson as an unacceptable radical and the friend of child molesters. He wanted to give Republicans a plausible excuse for rejecting her. He kept going on about how the Democrats prevented the GOP from putting the first “African American” on the court, in promising to filibuster Janice Rogers Brown back in 2005. For some reason, Graham was unable to say “woman.”
Graham got up and walked out after he was done. Senator Feinstein’s response was mild and bland. I had other stuff to do and couldn’t stand to watch anymore.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
I like to think of life itself as a kind of camping trip.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
here’s Dick Durbin talking about how great Ketanji Brown Jackson is, with video!
But of course it’s too little, too late and the wrong time and anyway everybody knows The Base watches every minute of committee hearings and takes notes and shit, but they don’t watch floor speeches.
randy khan
@gene108:
It does bring to mind the campaign that Danica Roehm ran against the infamous Bob Marshall. He was (probably still is) a vicious anti-gay bigot (probably a bunch of other types of bigot, too), and predictably ran a campaign about her being transgender with all of the awful stuff you can imagine. She spent the campaign on actual local issues, notably a nearby state highway that needed a lot of work. She beat him pretty handily. So there’s some virtue to not getting in the mud with them if you do it right.
(She also has a great story about Joe Biden, which is worth a read if you haven’t seen it: Joe and Danica.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
I don’t get this response. Are you so committed to Dems Are Doing It Wrong, and so fucking on-line, that a Republican voting for Ketanji Brown Jackson is actually a bad thing? just further proof that DADIW?
dww44
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, I really really like him, but he doesn’t have the fire in the belly rhetorical skills that are needed in this moment. I actually don’t know any Dems who have the fire in the belly rhetorical skills. Whitehouse might, but I just don’t know.
The Republicans on this committee have been so nauseating and so truly vile that it has called for some truly effective pushback on the part of elected Dem Senators and it pains me that we have not done more of this. Gol durn it we need some to stand up and speak out. Let Booker do it. Put Adam Schiff in Feinstein’s seat and let him have a go. I wish!!
O. Felix Culpa
The Senate Judiciary Dems on Republican questioning of KBJ:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jim, Foolish Literalist
not enough, I’ll say that
O. Felix Culpa
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Let her and him fight. :)
O. Felix Culpa
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Perhaps not interrupting the enemy when they were making a mistake was, I dunno, a deliberate–and successful–strategy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@O. Felix Culpa: I suspect they wouldn’t even find what was left of him
I think there may be a decent person somewhere down inside Murkowski
I also think it’s gonna stay down there
Jim, Foolish Literalist
just listening to a clip of Sarah Palin talk about how she’s running for Congress because R’s need someone with coHOnaze, no more of this namby pamby stuff
O. Felix Culpa
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think you’re right on all three points. But I like the first the best.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Because your whole thing is “effectiveness!” and a GOP vote is just an extra vote for the brutally efficient senate process of confirmation that we’re after, so why bother with Murkowski?
This was about courting moderate Republicans? Okay then. That’s a political strategy. An equally effective strategy would be courting Democratic voters, who offer the advantage of actually voting to elect Senate Democrats.
I think she’ll be a great justice and Biden did a bang up job. I do expect elected Democrats to ocasionally speak with and to the people who elect them, however. I think they can do both things.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
When did I say that? I said that most of the complaints about Democrats in these hearings have seemed to me to be lamenting a lack of emotionally satisfying political theatre for political junkies, and I think that’s true of most of your comments in this thread. I also said that I, too, wish Durbin had some flair for a zinger or some righteous indignation. I just disagree, strongly, that the lack of those things makes this moment a failure for Democrats. Again: forests and trees.
I gave you a link to Dick Durbin talking about Ketanji Brown Jackson– since at one point you said that was what you were looking for. I imagine his voters (at least the ones who follow him on twitter) appreciated it. And I imagine like most successful politicians, he speaks to his constituents fairly frequently, even if he doesn’t talk to you the precise way you want him to at the precise moment you want him to
I assume the reason you were posting the idiot Blackburn’s tweets earlier is that you think that’s an example how politicians should communicate with the people who elect them. Are the idiot Blackburn’s tweets somehow magically more effective than Durbin’s? Because he’s a Democrat and DeMoCrAtS aRe DoInG iT wRoNg!!! ?