During Strategy Talks, Senate Dems Weighed A Mass Walk-Out During Kavanaugh Hearings

WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) speak quietly during Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Tuesday September 4, 2018. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) speak quietly during Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington... WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) speak quietly during Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Tuesday September 4, 2018. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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In the hours leading up to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings, Senate Democrats debated the best strategy to show their disapproval, weighing walk outs and boycotts before settling on organized and sustained disruption.

According to a Tuesday Politico report, the younger, aggressive Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee compromised with the older ones who hew more closely to tradition and decorum, deciding to attend but to hijack the proceedings less than a minute into Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) opening statement.

The Democrats interrupted, one after another, with monologues about the lack of transparency surrounding the process, as well as the paucity of Kavanaugh’s records they had been given, with 42,000 pages of those documents only deposited on their doorsteps hours before the hearings began.

Though the organized ruckus projected a strong and unified front to viewers, one Democrat not on the Senate Judiciary Committee (and facing a tough reelection campaign in his red state), was not on board.

“Not how I was raised,” quipped Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to Politico.

However, the pack on the Senate Judiciary Committee is remaining in lockstep, reportedly huddling in Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) office Tuesday night to hammer out strategy for the next day of hearings.

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for nemo nemo says:
    1. Question Kavanaugh for days. Land blows.
    2. Renew motion to adjourn when done.
    3. Walk out just prior to vote stating expressly that the proceedings are illegitimate.
  2. Avatar for easydm easydm says:

    Sen. Joe Manchin (R-WV). There. Fixed it.

  3. Avatar for ericm ericm says:

    I actually laughed out loud when I read Manchin’s comment. I love how southern white trash think they’re somehow the arbiter of manners. I think he needs to worry less about how he was raised and more about how his state is subsiding on a steady diet of heroin and carcinogens and how having Kavanaugh on the court is only going to make that worse.

  4. Avatar for fgs fgs says:

    Culture! Heritage!

  5. Avatar for fgs fgs says:

    Take turns asking, “Will you overturn Roe v Wade?” Yes or no.

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