Ketanji Brown Jackson – Memphis Flyer

“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

With these nine words — apparently an ad-lib departure from his scripted speech in Poland last Saturday — President Joe Biden started the media’s hearts a-thumpin’ and created a field day for pundits, commentators, and other opinionistas. The next morning, the front pages of the country’s major newspapers led with the story of Biden’s “gaffe.” The Sunday cable shows were all over it. Quelle horreur!

Biden was speaking of Vladimir Putin, of course, the man who has single-handedly shoved Europe into disorder, destruction, and bloody conflict over the past month, the man who unilaterally invaded and attempted a takeover of a sovereign nation by brutal force.

But, apparently, suggesting that such a man should be removed from power is a bridge too far. Biden’s improv sent Washington media elites to their fainting couches. What will Vlad think? Will he be peeved? Sensing that the president may have taken a step too far, the White House immediately walked back the statement, saying that the president only meant that Putin should be removed from power in Ukraine. Right.

Here’s the thing: There are two sets of rules in play here. Donald Trump used to utter more “gaffes” before lunch on any given Tuesday than Biden has offered up in 14 months. “Little Rocket Man,” anyone? Redrawing the path of a hurricane on a map with a Sharpie? Suggesting that scientists figure out a way to “do an injection into the lungs” with bleach? Now those are gaffes.

And remember that Trump loves Putin, repeatedly calling him a “genius.” At a Mar-a-Lago gathering a month ago, Trump said, “Putin’s taking over a country for two dollars’ worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart. He’s taking over a country — really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people — and just walking right in.”

How remarkable is that? The former president of the United States is rooting for the current iteration of Hitler’s invasion of Poland to succeed, discussing it like it’s a real estate deal. The remark didn’t get much play on the morning shows, though. Not gaffe-y enough, I guess.

Biden, by contrast, was saying the quiet part out loud, something most decent people wish would happen: Putin has got to go. Forty years ago, President Reagan routinely called for the Berlin Wall to fall and labeled the Soviet Union “an evil empire.” Today, that’s not prudent. And, as with everything else in the U.S. these days, the political tribal divide defines how we react to things.

We have only to look at the circus surrounding the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson for another example. Despite having no real blemishes on her record and more judicial and trial experience than any nominee in decades, she suffered the slings and rubber-tipped arrows of GOP opportunists such as Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, and our homegrown lightweight, Marsha Blackburn, who accused Jackson of having a “hidden agenda to bring critical race theory into the law” (Huh?) and asked the judge to “define a woman.” (I would dearly love to see Marsha try to answer that latter question. Or “what’s eight times seven?” for that matter.)

Speaking of SCOTUS, how about that wacky Ginni Thomas, amirite? (Fun fact: Ginni’s number was 867-5309.) Copies of texts she sent to Trump chief of staff, Mark Meadows, were released to the media last week, and it’s clear she was a major force in organizing the January 6th insurrection and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. Kind of unseemly for the wife of a Supreme Court justice, don’t you think? Surely, even Republicans would agree with that? Nope. Crickets.

But, to be honest, I’m hard-pressed to think of any Republican senator who would put principle and/or love of country over party hackery and self-interest. Maybe Mitt Romney? Lisa Murkowski? I know the Democrats have their own hacks, but the country has come to a sad state of affairs when we can’t find agreement on issues with such an obvious demarcation between right and wrong. It’s always tribes über alles — much to our mutual detriment.

Sometimes I think about jumping ship. Perhaps I flatter myself, but I think I have some felicity with a turn of phrase. I have, on occasion, inspired an emotional response from my readers. Maybe I’m letting my ego run wild, but I think I could add something to any bench of speechifiers. Why not me?

What, one might ask, has prompted this flight of fancy?

Why it’s the senate confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, of course! As I write these words, the hearings are still ongoing, and it’s becoming apparent beyond parody how different are the standards to which we hold certain individuals. Consider, for example, the stark difference in qualifications between, say, Judge Jackson and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, who grilled Jackson on the first day of the hearing. If you so happen to be surfing the world wide web, I suggest contrasting the two officials’ Ballotpedia pages.

Jackson “received a bachelor’s degree in government, magna cum laude, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard University in 1992 and 1996, respectively. She served as the supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review from 1995 to 1996.” Blackburn, just for comparison, “graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s in home economics.”

Jackson’s page also boasts a lengthy list of awards. But I shouldn’t be unfair. Blackburn’s name is in a New York Times headline this week. To wit, the Times published an article by Charlie Savage titled “Echoing Conservative Grievances, Blackburn Miscasts Jackson’s Views.”

If you’ve seen any of the video from the hearing, you already know that transgender athletes, progressive education, parental rights, and (of course) critical race theory (CRT) were on the senator’s list of grievances. Most of the issues were, to be generous, something of a leap. Blackburn misquoted her way through Jackson’s record, apparently attempting to prove that Jackson was an agent of the deep state, hell-bent on introducing her secret biases into the American legal system.

“Ms. Blackburn also described three instances in which Judge Jackson ordered the release of inmates, including ‘a convict who murdered a U.S. marshal,’” Savage writes in the Times article. “The cases appeared to match three Covid-era rulings by the judge under a compassionate release law. The senator omitted the context: The man who killed a U.S. marshal, for instance, did so in 1971, had since served 49 years, and was 72 at the time of his release, with myriad health problems.”

Ah yes, those dangerous 72-year-olds. What a menace! Surely, this is proof that Judge Jackson is “soft on crime.”

Is that all it takes? One has only to mumble their way through a list of talking points, and one of the nation’s two foremost political parties is all too ready to celebrate them? Don’t we expect more from our senators? There are only 100 of them! Can we not expect them to comport themselves with some dignity? At the very least, can they not misquote people during a nationally televised hearing?

Of course, the lion’s share of the blame is undoubtedly because Jackson is Black. I have no doubt that the complaints from senators and Fox News hosts are owed primarily to racism, particularly any so-called “concern” about the judge’s qualifications for the role.

It’s a disturbing trend and a truly sad state of affairs. And if people think this behavior is acceptable while on camera, imagine what must happen in so many interviews, meeting rooms, and who-knows-where-else across the country. The unnecessary scrutiny some people must contend with, the free pass others get to make mistakes again and again and again. What really frightens me is that there seems to be a significant portion of Americans who think that it’s normal to twist the facts to fit a narrative, for whom fact checking is an anachronism.

So I wonder sometimes what it’s like to join the party for whom qualifications only matter if you’re talking about the other team. Why be constrained by facts, truth, common decency, or the belief that everyone deserves a fair shot? It must be an easy gig, following that well-worn script, if you can find a way to sleep at night.

All you have to do is speak loudly and carry a big grudge.