It is shocking that an experienced GOP government counsel would be shocked by the GOP during the SCOTUS confirmation process.
On CNN this Friday morning, former GOP counsel for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Sophia Nelson, was both stunned and outraged that Mitch McConnell has announced that he cannot support Brown-Jackson. McConnell’s rationale for not supporting her nomination is as desperate and meritless as one might expect:
“I cannot and will not support Judge Jackson to her lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. [Brown-Jackson] declined to address critically important questions and ameliorate real concerns… Judge Jackson was the court-packers’ pick. And she testified like it.”
If you are wondering what McConnell is talking about, please don’t ask me s to explain it because I’m not making an effort at the impossible. It takes McConnell-level of self-awareness and hypocrisy for McConnell to refer to anyone else as a “court packer.” Thus it was that Nelson went off in her commentary on “New Day.”
“Look, as someone who was a Republican for years 25 years of my life as a black woman, I understand how difficult it is to be a part of that party” Nelson replied. “But the shenanigans and the disrespect we witnessed this last week was race-baiting. Nothing that this judge has done or said in her past warranted those type of attacks.
One is forced to jump in here, but a black woman who has been a Republican for 25 years is shocked at the way the GOP would treat a black woman nominee? We are so happy to welcome Nelson’s return to reality and thank her for transitioning to the Democratic Party.
You made a good distinction about Justice Kavanaugh. I didn’t think Justice Kavanaugh was well treated, Brianna.
“I thought they should have gone into private session with that information and spared the judge and the witness, most importantly, the type of attacks and scrutiny they came under. But the point here is that if you look at the record, Republicans supported Ketanji Brown Jackson in the past. Mitch McConnell has voted for her. Ted Cruz has voted for her. [Iowa Sen. Chuck] Grassley. So for them to fast forward and saying somehow this woman isn’t competent, because she didn’t define what a woman is for Marsha Blackburn? Excuse me!”
If a nominee to the Supreme Court is accused of rape, the country damn well has the right to hear the woman’s allegation and Kavanaugh’s display of “judicial temperament” (if you’re a white man) in denying it.
“This is a historic nominee. Thurgood Marshall, 69 votes. Sonia Sotomayor, 68 votes. We have a practice of historic fists, like the first black woman, or first black person and the first woman getting significant bipartisan support and this judge deserves it. And the way they treated her was appalling. I am appalled as a black woman, appalled.”
Well, we are all appalled, too, Ms. Nelson. It is just that this is the GOP and the fact that you’re suddenly surprised smells a little too much like hypocrisy when you are outraged only when McConnell’s actions impact another black woman. Wait until a possible scenario of Justice Thomas being forced to resign (or resigning for “medical reasons”) and McConnell attempts to prohibit Biden from filling the seat at all.
Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest as a dual Canadian-American citizen, which he grows increasingly thankful for every day. He now enjoys life as a single dad, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast, getting advice from his beloved daughter and teammate. He is very much the dreamy mystic that cannot add and loves dogs more than most people. He also likes studying cooking, theoretical physics, cosmology, and quantum mechanics. He likes pizza.
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