Democrats announced today they would boycott a vote in the Judiciary Committee Oct. 22, protesting a vote they feel is illegitimate because it happens less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election. Democrats blamed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for refusing to hold a hearing on former President Barack Obama’s 2016 pick for the Supreme Court. D.C. Circuit Court Chief Judge Merrick Garland. McConnell made the mistake at the time to blame it on an Election Year, letting voters pick a new president, who, in turn, should pick the next Supreme Court justice. McConnell should have said in 2016 that because Republicans control the Senate they’re exercising their Artcle 1 authority to not holding a hearing on the Democrat president’s pick for a new Supreme Court justice. When 87-year-old Associate Justice Ruth Bader Gisnburg died Sept. 18, McConnell felt differently.
Because Republicans control the White House and Senate, 74-year-old President Donald Trump and McConnell decided to fast-track a nominee, picking runner up to Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, sworn in Oct. 6, 2018, in the most contentious confirmation hearing since Robert Bork’s hearing Oct. 23, 1987. While Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) conducted a dignified hearing Oct. 12-14, according to 87-year-old ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Feinstein’s praise for Graham won her utter contempt from her Democrat colleagues, furious that she would say anything positive on the record about Barrett’s hearing. Now Democrats on the committee say they will boycott the Thursday vote, calling it a protest. But if Democrat wanted to protest, they shouldn’t have participated fully in Barrett’s confirmation hearing.
Democrats arguments in Barrett’s confirmation hearing had to do with conjecture how she would potentially rule against Roe v. Wade [abortion], Obergefell v. Hodges [same sex marriage], and the 2010 Affordable Care Act AKA Obamacare. Barrett frustrated Democrats seeking to impeach her credibility on key issues by invoking the Ginsburg Rule, refusing to answer questions about how she’d rule in any future Supreme Court cases. Barrett comported herself as expected, demonstrating her superb legal acumen, dodging around Democrats inappropriate questions designed to discredit her in the hearing. “Throughout the hearings last week, committee Democrats demonstrated the damage a Justice Barrett would do—to health care, reproductive freedoms, the ability to vote, and other core rights that American cherish . . “ said 70-year-old Senate Minority Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
No one was harsher on Kavanaugh than Feinstein in 2018, essentially accepting the testimony of her star witness Dr. Christine Blasey Ford who accused Kavanaugh of attempted rape during a summer high school party. Kavanaugh denied the charges and Blasey Ford’s testimony was too filled with memory lapses to be credible. Feisntein was lauded by her Democrat colleagues for doing her best to derail Kavanaugh’s cofirmation. In the end, Republicans had the votes because former Sen. Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nv.) invoked the “nuclear option” in 2013 to get some of Obama’s nominees confirmed by a simple majority. Had Reid not changed the Senate rules, Kavanaugh and Barrett would not have been confirmed. Now Democrats threaten to boycott the final vote. Failing to show up for tomorrow’s vote would be a disgrace of historic proportions on the U.S. Senate.
Judiciary Democrats had their chance to sway more votes by asking Barrett about her involvement in South-Bend-based People of Praise quasi-religious cult, where she and her family have been involved for most of her adult life. Barrett mentioned nothing of her involvement as an elder “handmaid,” a designation for someone taking a leadership role in the group. Former group members gave their stories that they were sexually, physically and mentally abused by the group. But no, Democrats wasted their time trying to go toe-to-toe with Barrett on legal matters, something she was bound to win. Had Feinstein asked Barrett if she speaks in tongues, it would’ve spoke volumes to other fence-sitting Republicans senators considering voting against Barrett. Feinstein looked like she was trying to redeem herself after going after Kavanaugh with Blasey Ford in his 2018 confirmation hearing.
Lashing out at Feinstein shows Democrats’ scapegoating because they operate today under Reid’s nuclear option, giving Republicans a simple majority to confirm a Supreme Court Associate Justice. Had Reid not broken with longstanding Senate tradition using a simple majority, Kavanaugh and Barrett would not be confirmed. “This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” Feinstein told Graham, infuriating her Democrat colleagues. “It leaves one with a lot of hopes, a lot of questions and even some ideas perhaps of good bipartisan legislation we can put together,” Feinstein said, not realizing the Schumer would mount a mutiny against her on the Judiciary Committee. Democrats plan to replace Feinstein as ranking member, or if they take the Senate Nov. 3, Judiciary Committee Chairman. Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for Barrett’s eventual confirmation.
