Sasse Votes With The Jackasses Against Judge Jackson

 

While most Republican Senators were falling over themselves to act like an Ugly American when questioning Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during this week's Supreme Court hearings, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse did bring some decorum back to the proceedings chiding his GOP colleagues "jackassery" in their questioning of Judge Jackson:

A huge part of why this institution doesn’t work well is because we have cameras everywhere. Cameras change human behavior. We know this. … There’s a whole bunch of things humans can do if they’re not immediately mindful of some distant camera audience that they might be trying to create a soundbite for.

I think we should recognize that the jack-assery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities, and it is definitely a second and third and fourth order effect that the court should think through before it has advocates in there who are not only trying to persuade you nine justices, but also trying to get on cable that night or create a viral video.

Sasse's statement came to my attention through my Twitter friend Melissa Quinn Amour. While she was delighted, I took a more cynical view tweeting, "Two cheers. He'll likely vote no just the same as Cruz, Hawley, Kennedy, Blackburn, etc."

Sure enough, this evening Sasse decided to vote with the jackasses against Judge Jackson.

Now I'm sure Judge Jackson will take this in stride as she has the whole week and for her whole career preceding it. Barring all Republicans voting against her and a defection from Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, she will more likely than not be confirmed.

But Sasse frankly pissed me off. As crude, cruel and bigoted as Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and rest of the Republican jackasses are at least we know where we stand with them. Sasse can play nice all he wants but a no vote is a no vote. If Sasse truly wanted to take a stand against the "jack-assery" then he would have voted in favor of Jackson whatever ideological disagreements he might have had with her. This would have been a profile in courage.

There was a time not so long ago when a Republican voting for a Supreme Court justice appointed by Democratic President (and vice-versa) wasn't an act of heresy. Judicial ideology played less of a consideration than qualifications and temperament. In 1994, Jackson's predecessor Stephen Breyer was confirmed 87-9 earning the votes of 33 Republican Senators including Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley. But American politics has changed over the past 5 years, never mind the past 30 years.

Mind you, I wrote in Ben Sasse's name as my presidential vote during the 2016 election because of his willingness to speak out against Trump. But as with most Republicans this would soon change and Sasse curried favor with Trump. More than anything else this was the reason I didn't get excited when Sasse chided his GOP colleagues. While he might chide them, he will still vote with them.