How many ways can you ask a man how he will rule on Roe v. Wade? Well let’s take a back of the envelope calculation here – there are nine Democrat Senators on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and if there are three rounds of questions, plus intro, and each one averages… oh, are you still there?
It’s no wonder why anyone would turn off the hearings at this point. Firstly let’s take it for granted that nothing particularly interesting is going to come from the Republicans in this hearing. You’ll hear some cool Founding Fathers quotes and all, but let’s be honest – no one came to see that show. What about the Dems? Surely they brought the heat?
The sad truth is that not one Democrat member of the committee used the bulk of their time to ask the nominee probing questions.
Relatively soon into the afternoon, it became clear that even though all their fellow partisans who questioned Gorsuch before them did so, no matter – every Democrat would ask Gorsuch about Roe v. Wade, Hobby Lobby, the travel ban, etc. The result of such questions was the same every time. A few words might change but Gorsuch showed considerable talent to stay on message – the same non-answer would issue, and then rinse and repeat as kabuki theater.
All this stems from a problem on both sides of the political isle – the lies they tell themselves that they just want good judges while the other side wants political allies. The truth, of course, is that both sides want judges who will rule they way they want. How refreshing if they were open about it. Pretending politics has nothing to do with it doesn’t seem to be helping anyone.
Will there be more Roe on day 3? Will the Gorsuch’s hug like on day 1? Will Franken make everyone LoL? Stay tuned.
