Let’s end the confirmation farce

Is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson “soft on crime”?

Probably more so than I.

So what?

She is unquestionably qualified, but on the second day of grilling,  she showed the slightest bit of exasperation when Sen. Ted Cruz asked if she still drowned kittens.

To be fair, that was balanced when Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked her if she gets puckered skin on her feet when she walks on water.

Sen. Josh Hawley wanted to know if she adopted teenage pornographers to bring home to play “pictures” with her two daughters, while Sen. Mazie Hirono asked her — because she asks everyone (except Joe Biden) if they ever had harassed an employee.

Sen. Lindsey Graham also was porn-obsessed, and seemed to blame Jackson because his favorite judge didn’t get the nomination. 

It reminded me that no force on earth has the power of a dumb idea. 

Jackson was calm, dignified, lovely — and did you hear her proclaiming her love for America, the only place, as Barack Obama said, where such a story is possible?

Shouldn’t Republicans be over the moon? She sounds like them!

Ah, but politics has transformed Senate confirmation hearings from a dignified search for truth to a carnival of grandstanding, featuring a center-ring dog and pony show. Or donkey and elephant show.

We should end the farce where everyone on the judiciary  committee gets to preen and bloviate.

Remember the fun impeachment show trials? (For those with poor memories, that was Bill Clinton before Donald J. Trump.)

A handful of Honorables were selected to question the victim president.

I’d suggest something similar here. Let the Dems and Republicans each select a single interrogator  and get the process concluded in a single day.

I noticed a number of media commentators opine about the “grueling” sessions. I doubt if they have ever worked on a truck or in a warehouse. I have done both, and the warehouse was long before Amazon. In my warehouse I was the robot walking up and down long aisles selecting products.

A surgeon leading a team performing a heart transplant, that’s grueling.

The hearing reminded me of a deposition, and I had one of those not long ago.

Your attorney throws you a slow-pitch softball, while the opposing attorney pegs fastballs at your head.

It was tough for Jackon in at least one way.

As a judge, she is accustomed to asking questions, not answering them.

Ever been in court?

They say a ship’s captain is the last unquestioned dictator left on earth. 

No. They have officers who can mutiny.

Put someone in a black robe, and their power is unchecked.

Until their decisions are appealed, anyway.

So for more than two days, Judge Jackson had to sit through a “job interview” we all know she will get.

And should.

She is qualified, and elections have consequences. 

And in case you weren’t around for it, I said the same thing about Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, when Democrats ran the Inquisition, and Republicans complained of unfairness and bias.

Like I said, we could use a new system.