Big Damn Heroes, Cassandra, Congress, Current Affairs, Political Crack, Race, Sexism, Supreme Court

Eleven Angry Republicans

I wrote about the racism inherent in the responses to President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. In those cases it was reflexive and subtle. On Tuesday the work of the Senate Judiciary Committee began in earnest, and the racism quickly rose to the fore. Our Fearless Leader has weighed in on some of what went on.

What struck me at the end of the day, having watched or listened to most of the Republican committee members, was how openly angry they all were. Part of it I am sure was their individual and collective frustration that they were unable to land a single punch on Judge Jackson because her composure was just amazing.

But part of it was the sheer disbelief that Joe Biden had now elevated 2 Black women, Vice President Harris and Judge Jackson (potentially), to the very highest levels of government–and that there was nothing they could do about it. And despite the hue and cry from the GOP when Judge Jackson was nominated about how she wasn’t qualified and her being on the court would mean that Black women were over-represented, blah blah blah, she had the absolute audacity to accept the invitation to be the nominee.

I’m not exaggerating. Lindsey Graham literally had a tantrum and walked out:

The GOP’s anger was deliberately channeled into a disgusting suggestion that Judge Jackson coddles pedophiles and child predators, and would do so from the lofty heights of SCOTUS.

Ted Cruz pretended he didn’t know what a law school journal law note was, despite the fact he went to Harvard Law and was on the Harvard Law Review—WITH JUDGE JACKSON—and tried to spin her exploratory essay into a way to protect child predators.

Josh Hawley spent his entire time going over the cases he thought proved that Judge Jackson was only biding her time until she could get on SCOTUS and set child predators free. It was so angry and unhinged that my first thought was “so Hawley is a pedo, huh?”. And in the end, Hawley was wrong about the details of the case he was using to smear Judge Jackson with. Here’s the context of that case if you were watching C-SPAN like me and missed this reporting:

The last GOP senator to delve into the child predator smear was Marsha Blackburn. I honestly had never seen her in action before. I mean I knew she was stupid, but I was unprepared for Marsha Live. In her case it wasn’t so much the stuff she was actually saying where you felt her roiling anger. Instead it was in her voice.

Years ago I interacted in the virtual world with a woman who was a boiling cauldron of rage. She was unhinged and angry and she forced herself into a smiling happy persona. I always saw her as a smiley face balloon, stretch to its breaking point and continuing to fill with air.

That’s the image I got when Blackburn started talking. What struck me was her singsong voice and her soft, measured cadence. This is how you talk a volatile child who will hurt you if they can. This is how you talk to someone you think is mentally challenged (if you’re an asshole like Blackburn). It was the clearest indication we’ve seen—so far—about how angry the GOP is that Black women are starting to enter the halls of power.

I’m handing this off to Lizzo: