Let’s hope turnabout is not fair play

I certainly hope that the hearings on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination are what Sen. Dick Durbin wants them to be: “Respectful and dignified.” That would be such a pleasant change from recent experience.

I imagine that there are no friends from the nominee’s past who just now remember a high school party she “might” have attended where there “might” have been inappropriate activity on a night that no one else can actually recall. That would be a terrible shame, and trigger such an unfortunate series of events, not to mention some really mediocre “Saturday Night Live”sketches.

Let’s pray that there aren’t going to be any folks digging through the judge’s past religious affiliations, looking for evidence that she belongs to a cult, or that she had the audacity to consider adopting some white children (you know, being a Black woman and all).

It would be so regrettable if Judge Brown’s family and former associates happened to be dragged through the mud by political partisans, who only care about ensuring that an ideologue of their particular tribe makes it to the high court to, you know, do one thing and one thing alone: Save Roe v. Wade.

All of that would be terribly unfortunate, and counterproductive, and incredibly unjust. So yes, let’s hope that Sen, Durbin’s prediction comes to pass and we have a hearing filled with respectful interlocutors, dignified questions and attendees who refrain from storming the floor of the Senate Judiciary Committee screaming expletives. That only happens once in a Brett Moon, after all.

Yes, I’m being facetious. And I’m still bitter about what happened during the Trump years when Democrats treated the nomination process as successive inquisitions of conservatives they mistrusted at best, hated at worst. While they sheathed their claws when Gorsuch was nominated to replace Antonin Scalia (even though they were justifiably outraged that Merrick Garland was deprived a hearing) they went nuclear when it came to Brett Kavanaugh. The character assassination of that man was so brutal and so unjustified that it dwarfed what happened to Robert Bork a generation earlier. At least Bork was only accused of renting porn. Kavanaugh was accused of essentially creating his own adolescent porn movie, sponsored by Michelob.

It’s hard to hear people plead for fairness and respect for Ketanji Brown Jackson when these are some of the same people who vilified Amy Coney Barrett for being a devout Catholic, having a lot of children and not being a judge for very long prior to being elevated to the bench. Brown Jackson is clearly a qualified candidate, having graduated with honors from Harvard undergraduate and law schools, and presiding as a federal judge since 2013. There is no reason that her qualifications should be questioned. But then again, neither should Kavanaugh or Coney Barrett (or Bork, or Clarence Thomas) have been. All of them, with the exception of Barrett, were Ivy grads and all of them had long and distinguished careers in academia or on the bench.

Brown Jackson is a highly qualified woman who will very likely be confirmed as an associate justice. There is little doubt that even the most unpredictable Democrats will vote to confirm her, because there isn’t anything particularly radical in her past or present. Yes, she went out of her way to represent Guantanamo detainees, but that was a personal choice that many other attorneys made and while I don’t agree with it, I remember John Adams representing the British after the Boston Massacre and I accept it as part of the oath we take to the constitution.

The fact that there is an even 50-50 split in the Senate and that another woman of color is set to cast the deciding vote, the likelihood that Judge Ketanji

It would be so regrettable if Judge Brown’s family and former associates happened to be dragged through the mud by political partisans, who only care about ensuring that an ideologue of their particular tribe makes it to the high court to, you know, do one thing and one thing alone: Save Roe v. Wade.

Brown Jackson will not become Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is slim to none. And that’s fine, elections have consequences and Biden gets to choose who he wants.

But please, progressives, do not dare lecture us about “dignity and respect” after decades of spitting on those hallowed principles when the people in front of you didn’t share your values, your skin color, your sexual apparatus or your conception of faith.

That sound you’ll hear is bitter, raucous, incredulous laughter at your (excuse the pun) supreme nerve.