It New York Times front page went all in in feverish support of Biden Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday’s front page, with reliable Democratic defender Carl Hulse viciously and hypocritically attacking Republicans for peppering Jackson with policy questions in a “news analysis,” “A Broken Confirmation Process on Full Display.”
Four years after the Democrats’ disgusting display in the hearings for now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Washington correspondent Hulse, who relished Kavanaugh’s (temporary) loss of personal reputation, now weeps over how the Republicans mistreated the “historic….highly qualified” nominee Jackson.
The Republican manhandling of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson this week was convincing evidence that the Senate’s Supreme Court confirmation process is irredeemably broken.
The process has now been broken
Judge Jackson was subject to a hostile interrogation that included political dog-whistling as well relentlessly re-litigating Supreme Court conflicts of the past. This marred what could’ve been a major national moment and a chance for the Senate not only to restart but also to see the first Black woman reach the pinnacle American jurisprudence.
It was simply an extension of the past: bitter attacks, toxic partisanship and nasty questioning with innuendo over the character flaws of the nominee.
“Do you believe child predators are misunderstood?” Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, asked in one of the many loaded queries aimed at defining Judge Jackson as some sort of pedophile enabler, despite years of lauded service on the bench.
The nominee’s failure on a tenet of basic biology was cast aside.
She was questioned about the definition of “woman,” at a time when transgender rights are a hot-button issue, and grilled repeatedly about her views of antiracism and critical race theory.
This Supreme Court confirmation was the best.
Judge Jackson was a historical nominee and is considered highly qualified by even her critics….
The Republican leadership was determined to challenge the nomination of the President of the opposing party respectfully. The Republican leaders feared that white Republican men would gang up on Black women in order to win an election.
Republicans couldn’t help but get involved. In long, tedious days of interrogation, they tried to discredit Judge Jackson. Or at the very least, drag her through all of it on her way towards confirmation.
The attraction of media attention and the strong gravitational pull are the final results. They are the right fringe members of their party proved too much for many Republicans to resist….
Plus, Republicans continue to seek revenge for Democrats’ treatment of their party’s nominees dating back 35 years, and are particularly livid At what Democrats consider to be the cruel attacks against Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh During his confirmation, four years ago.
That led to the worst part: Hulse’s defense of Democratic behavior during the Kavanaugh hearings.
Justice Kavanaugh was actually accused of sexual assault, but the accuser was willing to give evidence under oath in his confirmation hearing. That is quite a different scenario than Judge Jackson, who had to face a barrage if questions that implied she was radicalized on social issues as well as a complicit child sex abuser. And though the Kavanaugh hearings were explosive, Democrats at least agreed to hold them, unlike Republicans who had blockaded President Barack Obama’s 2016 nominee, Merrick Garland.
Republicans were willing to listen to Christine Blasey Ford’s Kavanaugh allegations and also to postpone the vote for at least a week so that an FBI investigation can take place.
It Times is mad the Republicans made an issue of Jackson’s sentencing records. Four years ago, the Democrats exhibited blow-up charts of Brett Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook and questioned him about impenetrable yearbook slang to prove he was a high school drunkard. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, wondered if he had ever been blackout drunk.
Senator Mazie Hirono from Hawaii said outside the hearing that Kavanaugh’s rape accusations were easier to believe because of his conservatism. Michael Avenatti, the sleazy porn attorney Michael Avenatti claimed that Kavanaugh ran a rape train in high school. These are very different things.
Meanwhile, Hulse, a reliable Democratic defender, was incensed on behalf of his preferred party that Judge Jackson had to suffer…policy questions.
It’s quite nervy for Hulse to accuse Republicans of “vilification” post-Kavanaugh:
This leaves us wondering where the Supreme Court Reviews are at this point. Jackson’s hearing opened up a new realm in vilification Because she is so focused on her past sentencing, it means that any sentence handed down by future nominees can now be used as fodder.
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