Senator(s) Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton wasted well over an hour of the public’s time yesterday. Instead of legitimate questions aimed at advancing the conversation about conservative and liberal legal philosophy, they spent more than an hour trying to punch holes into the fabric of judicial integrity. As advertised—and as he had in the days before the hearing, Hawley made the ridiculous leap into QAnon-land, implying Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was sympathetic to child molesters and pedophiles. I guess he was bothered she was not having perpetrators hanged in the public square. Hawley’s swipe was different than Cruz, who failed in his show-and-tell hour, having his interns change out colorful illustrations of babies whom Cruz feared would be labeled by liberals as racist while holding up books the GOP wants to be banned.
Of the eleven Republicans on the Committee, the performance art was spread around, but Hawley, Cruz, and Cotton rivaled Moe, Larry, and Curly. At one point, Cotton, desperate to self-produce a fall political ad, put forth a succession of rapid-fire questions asking how much time murderers, rapists, and drug dealers should receive in jail; “Congress has prescribed a number of factors that judges look at when they sentence. It may in many questions not be; I can’t answer in the concrete,”Jackson replied.Senator Cotton was not looking for an answer; he was looking for a moment to raise his fist, like he did January sixth.
Republicans have not been this unaware of the right side of history—since the election of Barack Obama in November of 2007 when they promised to make him a one-term President. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee thought an after-dinner show was necessary when she sang out a series of calculated lies and misinformation. Senator Blackburn’s carefully worded statement said, “CRT was being pushed” not taught in public schools. She also implied a large majority of women are anti-abortion. “79 percent of the American women support restrictions ‘of some type’ on abortion,” said Blackburn. The source of the seventy-nine percent was from a 2019 Washington Times story specifically about late-term abortion. However, later in the questioning, Blackburn portrayed it as an overall anti-abortion view.
Judge Brown Jackson and her family have done nothing but live the American dream, but all of that is no shield from her blackness. The idea that she would be a part of teaching her interracial children to hate their white father is almost absurd as her being sympathetic toward pedophiles. The real problem is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is black, unassailable, and unarguably more qualified than both the latest Conservative Justice(s) Kavanaugh and Barrett. The double standard that applies here is obvious. Had a woman of any color broken down in tears, as did Brett Kavanaugh, who cried and whined during a paranoid rant —Well.
As impressive as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is and undoubtedly will continue to be, she does not need defense. She just needs more of the light she not only richly deserves but has earned. Unfortunately, the Democrats on the Committee, save for a few, took the bait. Instead of flipping on the switch to her judicial record, they used testimonials instead of facts to plead her case. Keep your popcorn handy; the kids will need snacks
Continue to Vote for Change.