The Democrat’s strategy for getting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson through her confirmation hearing relatively unscathed has been to delay, obstruct, and run out the clock on Republicans with a partisan two-step by Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin.
It’s a strategy that’s going to work because as chairman, Durbin holds the gavel. And he’s been using it liberally to silence Republican questioners.
Take the issue of Republicans requesting several pre-sentencing reports from the cases of sex offenders that crossed Judge Jackson’s desk before she issued her sentences. These would be vital to understanding the judge’s reasoning for giving some sex offenders lighter sentences.
Durbin says he “wouldn’t want it on his conscience.”
“This information was not requested before, it’s never been requested by this committee,” Durbin said. “And I think we ought to think long and hard about whether or not we even consider going into pre-sentence reports.”
Cruz insisted that Jackson herself had told the senators that the reports were “relevant to understanding those cases,” while Lee suggested that members could view redacted versions of the reports or look at them in a classified setting. Durbin was unmoved.
“I do not want it weighing on my conscience that I gave the green light to release this information, so that it might endanger the lives of innocent victims,” he said. “I’m sorry, that’s a bridge too far for me.”
Durbin has also been interrupting the examination of Jackson by some Republicans, trying to deflect difficult questions from having to be answered. Not coincidentally, this tactic also ate up a large part of the 20 minutes allotted to each Senator for questioning.
Senator Ted Cruz was right in the middle of drilling down on an evasive Judge Jackson when the fireworks between Durbin and Cruz erupted.
“You don’t want her to answer that question?” Cruz asked.
“You wouldn’t allow her —” Durbin shot back. “You’ve gone over the time, senator, by two minutes.”
“Because you’ve interrupted me for two minutes, chairman. Will you allow her to answer the question or do you not want the American people to hear why, with someone she described as an egregious —” Cruz said before being interrupted by Durbin again.
“Why are you not allowing her to answer the question?” Cruz asked with rising irritation. “Chairman Durbin, I’ve never seen the chairman refuse to allow a witness to answer questions.”
Durbin started banging his gavel to bring Cruz to order, prompting Cruz to exclaim: “Bang it as loud as you want.”
All nominees to the Supreme Court try to say as little as possible in order to offend the fewest number of people. It’s an old game going back to the 1980s. Before then, Supreme Court hearings were fairly serious affairs — not the three-ring circuses they’ve become. But then, the radical left decided Robert Bork was too conservative and the floodgates opened to where now both sides play “gotcha” games with nominees.
For Our VIPs: Ketanji Jackson Has Been Alarmingly Evasive in Her Testimony
Judge Jackson will be voted out of the Judiciary Committee and the Senate will advise and consent to her nomination. And the ideological breakdown of the Court will not change one iota.
Shouldn’t there be a more dignified way to confirm a nominee to the high court than these clown-car smashups?
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