Good Morning.
I've had some time to contemplate the proceedings of last Thursday and Friday as well as listen to the commentary about the events over the weekend. There were several remarkable things that transpired but only one in a good way: a Republican walked across the dais, tapped a Democrat on the shoulder, and the two decided that there should be further investigation into the accusations of sexual assault by a nominee for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Other than that astonishing moment that has apparently found favor with a certain portion of the electorate but by no means everyone, most of the proceedings were horrifying.
We had the nominee himself who raged like a prehistoric animal, wounded to be sure, but exhibiting behavior that should be extinct by now. He flipped the pages of a looseleaf notebook with the snap of a whip, made faces normally seen on small boys whose mothers warn them they'll freeze that way, asked a senator with biting sarcasm if she drinks too much, and responded, disdainfully, to questions about the notations in his high school yearbook with mistruths, i.e. lies. Let's all say that together: lies. A Devil's Triangle is not a drinking game and ralphing and boofing are not reactions to eating spicy food. The first is what the French call a Menage a Trois, the second is throwing up after boozing to excess, and the third I decline to further discuss. The guy flat out lied. Where were his parents, by the way, while all of this stuff was going on? They were in the hearing room on Thursday but where were they in 1982? Did anyone over the age of eighteen proof read the yearbook?
The belligerence throughout the proceedings was unreal. Can you imagine if Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Elena Kagan, or Sonya Sotomayor had behaved like that during their hearings? They would have been carted out of the room in restraints by the paramedics. Indeed, the woman prosecutor from Arizona was shown the door when Grassley and the gang decided she was being too respectful with her questioning. Lindsey Graham was more what they had in mind and unleashed himself in a manner that was, if anything, louder and more vituperative than the nominee. His colleagues looked and sounded as if they'd eaten nails for breakfast with the exception of one, a Mormon who had done missionary work in Africa and who found it possible to have a chat with someone on the other side of the dais, a Presbyterian with a degree in divinity who had spent a year in Nairobi. That was apparently the basis of their friendship. Sounds good to me.
Of course O'Connor, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor weren't accused of assault, and the good ol' boys either believe that their nominee shouldn't be either or they don't give a tinker's damn that he is. It's scary time, folks. It's gone too far, the lack of civility and conscience. I had a candidate for the State Senate ring my doorbell on Saturday and he talked about his grandkids. He was very pleasant but he was trying to get my vote. He won't. When I looked over his brochure, he lost me with his statement that nobody should pay attention to the presidential tweets because the only thing that matters is the tax cut. Not in my world. I'd rather pay a little more and have better candidates - for all three branches of government.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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