Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is largely silent in the video below, shared with approbation by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). Durbin’s GOP Senate colleagues continue to implore the Chairman to allow them to speak, but Durbin has already decided to move to a vote, denying further discussion on the judicial nominees in question — Mustafa Kasubhai and Eumi Lee.
I’m old enough to remember when Republicans refused to even allow a hearing on a nominee by the name of Merrick Garland.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) November 30, 2023
Thank you to Senator Dick Durbin for standing up to Republican obstruction. https://t.co/AKG85QG84e
At one point Ranking Member Lindsey Graham said “we want to tell you again why these nominees are awful.” But Durbin thought again was too much, with two hearings already having been had on the same two nominees.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), joined Graham in vocally protesting. Cotton said, “We don’t have a right to speak under the rules?”
Denied again, and hearing his colleague Blackburn denied, Cotton tried a culture war slur, saying “Now I guess Sen. Durbin is not going to allow women to speak either. I thought that was sacrosanct in your party!”
[NOTE: Cotton ignored the tacit implication that allowing women to speak is not sacrosanct in his own party.]
Told he was violating Rule 4 of the Committee — “If there is objection to bring the matter to a vote without further debate a roll call vote of the Committee shall be taken” — by moving to roll call, Durbin later replied that he was following “precedent.”
“I’ve said time and again there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and a different set for Democrats,” Durbin said, noting that Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Graham himself, while chairmen, had advanced a partisan vote under similar circumstances.
It has been a hot week on the fractious Judiciary Committee. Also on Thursday, Sen. Cornyn, Sen. Ted Cruz and others walked out of the committee to protest a Democrat-led subpoenaing of controversial conservative billionaire Harlan Crow about his financial relationship with SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas.
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