South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham last week tried to portray himself as open-minded and willing to give Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson a fair hearing for a seat on the Supreme Court. That's why his most recent comments about Jackson, whom he had no problem voting to confirm for her current U.S. circuit court post, are "laughably absurd," according to one political columnist.
Writing on MSNBC's "Maddowblog," Steve Benen notes that on Monday Graham raised many an eyebrow when he said Jackson wouldn’t have even received a confirmation hearing if there were a GOP majority in the Senate right now.
“If we get back the Senate, and we’re in charge of this body, and there’s judicial openings, we will talk to our colleagues on the other side. But if we were in charge, she would not have been before this committee,” the senator declared. “You would have had somebody more moderate than this.”
IN OTHER NEWS: 'I didn't win the election': Trump concedes 2020 defeat in video interview with historians
Graham added, “We are supposed to be trained seals over here clapping when you nominated a liberal. That’s not going to work.”
In other words, Benen writes, "the South Carolina Republican didn’t say that he and his party would oppose every high court nominee chosen by President Joe Biden; Graham said the GOP can’t tolerate this specific high court nominee — because Jackson, in the senator’s eyes, is some kind of left-wing radical,"
As Graham probably knows, his argument is "laughably absurd," observes Benen. "To see Jackson as an extremist is to pretend reality has no meaning. We are, after all, talking about a respected and experienced jurist who’s nomination has been endorsed by several leading law enforcement organizations and a variety of prominent conservative voices from the legal community."
"Graham’s tantrum notwithstanding, if Jackson were some kind of left-wing radical, she wouldn’t enjoy the support of folks like retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, retired federal Judge Thomas R. Griffith, and former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn," Benen writes, adding that "Graham’s rhetoric about this is also literally unbelievable."
