Sen. Durbin Beclowns Himself in Address to GOP Colleagues; Should We Remind Him?
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois addressed colleagues on Monday to both offer praise for Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson and to scold his Republican colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, for accusing her of “vile things in front of her parents, her husband and her children.”
“On the whole, my Republican colleagues starting with my ranking member, Sen. Grassley, treated the nominee with dignity and respect,” Durbin said. “They promised not to turn this confirmation process into a court circus, and most kept that promise.”
He noted that, “Some, however, did not. Instead they repeatedly interrupt and badgered Judge Jackson and accused her of vile things in front of her parents, her husband and her children. There was table pounding, some literal, from a few of my colleagues. They repeated discredited claims about Judge Jackson’s record. They impugned her motives and questioned her candor. One all but called her a liar. They even suggested that Judge Jackson, a mother to two wonderful daughters, quote ‘endangers children.’”
“Judge Jackson is a better person than me. She stayed calm and collected. She showed dignity, grace and poise.”
“It is unfortunate that some moments in our hearing came to that. But if there is one positive to take away from these attacks on her, it is that the nation saw the temperament of a good, strong person ready to serve on the highest court of the land,” he added.
“Judge Jackson is a better person than me.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) lauded Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s temperament while criticizing behavior from some GOP members of the Judiciary Committee during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. pic.twitter.com/K4WqJIsCuu
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2022
It’s extraordinary that Durbin would make such a statement after the Senate Democrats’ disgraceful behavior during the confirmation process for current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Unable to accept the threat he posed to their beloved Roe v. Wade decision, the Democrats piled on. They brought in the hapless Christine Blasey Ford, with the little girl voice, who had claimed in a letter to Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her at a suburban Maryland house party in the “early 1980s.” She didn’t recall the year this had happened, whose house it had been or even what town it was located in. Nor did she remember how she had gotten to the party or who had driven her home.
The experience had caused lasting psychological damage, she claimed. It had left her with a fear of small spaces that she said precluded her from flying on airplanes — even though records showed she had traveled to Hawaii several times with her family.
Then, additional accusers started coming out of the woodwork to charge Kavanaugh with sexual misconduct, including Julie Swetnick who was represented by the darling of the Democratic Party at the time, Michael Avenatti. According to The Washington Post, “in a sworn declaration, she said that in 1981-1983, she observed Kavanaugh drinking excessively at house parties and engaging ‘in abusive and physically aggressive behavior toward girls.’ She claimed Kavanaugh and others would get girls inebriated, so they could be ‘gang raped’ in side rooms at house parties by a ‘train’ of numerous boys. ‘I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their “turn” with a girl inside the room.'”
The article in the Post lists all of the sordid allegations leveled against Kavanaugh at that time.
We watched Democratic senators devolve into belligerent, sophomoric children and protesters shouting “Vote No” as they tried to stop the hearing. Lawmakers combed through Kavanaugh’s high school yearbooks and calendars he had kept from that time and questioned him on intimate details. This disgusting spectacle starred then-Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker, both of whom were clearly auditioning for their upcoming campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Blasey Ford had made a very serious accusation against Kavanaugh with zero evidence. On top of that, there were glaring inconsistencies in her testimony, and she was never asked to account for any of them. Unlike the woman who accused then-candidate Joe Biden of sexual assault, whose story had been corroborated by at least four individuals, her story was to be believed. Just ask Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono.
Contrast that surreal circus with the Republican senators’ questioning of Brown Jackson on her verifiable sentencing record of individuals convicted on child pornography charges.
Incredible Durbin was able to pull this off with a straight face. @DickDurbin joined literal career criminal Michael Avenatti in calling Kavanaugh a serial gang rapist — but thinks fair questions about Jackson’s record (which they tried to hide) are “vile?”
Get out of here. https://t.co/MgYjZ12cYH
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 4, 2022
Clown world. pic.twitter.com/nZQUtTPEVc
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) April 5, 2022
Sen. Durbin claims the Republicans said “vile things in front of her parents, her husband and her children.” Actually, senator, they questioned Jackson on her record as a judge.
After the Democrats’ demonization and persecution of Brett Kavanaugh in front of his parents, his wife and his young children, of which Sen. Durbin was very much a part, his Party has forfeited the right to complain.
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