To no one’s surprise, when it came to the confirmation vote for Judge Jackson’s nomination to SCOTUS today, she was confirmed.
53-47.
Yep. Earlier – much – I discussed the tactics that would best service the Republicans in the face of a confirmation confrontation which, once Senator Manchin (D-WV) signaled his approval, they could not hope to win.
But if the Republican leadership is smart – yeah, I shook my head, too – they’ll keep everyone calm.
Why? Because it’ll impress the independents that the Republicans are the grownups in the room. It won’t be true, of course, as Senators McConnell (R-KY) and Grassley (R-IA) have been dribbling lies about when nominees can be confirmed for years now. But most independent voters won’t be aware of that, while the near-riots and protests and the drama during the confirmation hearings of Kavanaugh and Barrett were loud and, frankly, embarrassing.
And did they? No. Anyone paying attention through the last two weeks is well aware of the nasty methods and remarks of Senator Cruz (R-TX), Senator Hawley (R-MO), Senator Blackburn (R-TN), and Senator Graham (R-SC), all of which have generated laughter from observers, as has some of the less rancid remarks from Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) and others. Points to Senator Blount (R-MO) for a particularly silly set of remarks praising Judge Jackson, but refusing to vote for her.
These remarks, end to end, have done nothing to enhance their Party’s reputation for the upcoming 2022 election cycle, and the Republicans should be desperate to rehab a Party reputation that has suffered from bizarre abortion state laws, crazy remarks questioning the legitimacy of birth control, 2022 Agendas that are accompanied by outright lies and then repudiated by Senator McConnell (R-KY) in an ineffectual manner, and a general level of incompetency attributable to fourth-rate personalities.
I attribute this mistake at least partially to Senator McConnell’s clinging to the former Speaker of the House Gingrich’s precept that opposing the Democrats at every turn is the way to run governmental affairs. By agreeing that Judge Jackson is eminently qualified and assenting to her confirmation, they would have appeared to be reasonable members of government, worthy of reelection. They failed to recognize a great opportunity to damage the Democrats … or at least not damage themselves. They utterly failed.
AND … but first, some context. Controversial and basically useless Rep Greene (R-GA) remarked thusly…
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) stated that “any senator voting to confirm [Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court] is pro-pedophile just like she is.” [The Hill]
And elsewhere she singled out Senators Romney (R-UT), Collins (R-ME), and Murkowski (R-AK), who were the three Republican Senators voting for the confirmation of Judge Jackson, in a clear threat.
Senator McConnell, as leader of the GOP caucus, should be taking care of his people. They take care of him, after all, by selecting him multiple times to be their leader. So when that baldly stupid demagogic threat came out, he should have had as many members of his caucus vote FOR Jackson as would agree. That would have sent a message to Greene not to run around lying through her teeth, which he could have reinforced with a speech declaring Greene to not be a conservative, but a terrorist. I leave the balance of such a message to the fevered imagination of my readers, since Senator McConnell declined the opportunity to distinguish himself for a change.
So there you go. Congrats to the future Associate Justice of SCOTUS, which she becomes when Breyer officially retires in a few weeks. And to President Biden for nominating a candidate who drew praise from both sides of the political spectrum, if not from the fabulists in the GOP caucus of the Senate, and reassures the nation that an adult is in the Oval Office.
