Thursday's Senate Judiciary hearing was truly astonishing. Democrats played procedural games in an attempt to silence Republicans on the Committee, voted to send radical judicial nominees to the Senate floor, and authorized subpoenas against Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow—marking a new chapter in the Democrats' witch hunt against conservative Supreme Court Justices.
The hearing started off with Chairman Dick Durbin obstructing Republicans from speaking on some of the judicial nominations up for a vote.
The video footage shows a shocking display of disrespect for his Republican colleagues by Durbin.
This behavior is damaging to the institution of the Senate. Senator Cornyn remarked, Durbin "just destroyed one of the most important committees in the United States Senate."
On the nominees Republicans were able to voice their concerns on, Democrats brushed aside very legitimate Republican concerns.
Finally, Senate Democrats wrapped up Thursday's hearing by voting to authorize subpoenas for Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow as part of the Left's campaign to smear the reputations of conservative Justices. And just like the beginning of the hearing, Chairman Durbin prevented Republicans from having adequate time to voice their opposition to this outrageous proposal targeting private citizens.
The Washington Post reports that both Leo and Crow are opposed to the invasive scope of the subpoenas which are unprecedented and partisan harassment:
In a statement after the vote Thursday, Crow’s office called the subpoena unenforceable and the investigation unlawful and partisan.
“Committee Democrats have made intrusive demands of a private citizen that far exceed any reasonable standard and to this date have not explained why this request is necessary to craft legislation,” Crow’s statement said. “Still, Mr. Crow maintains his readiness to discuss the matter further with the Committee.”
Leo said in a statement that he “will not cooperate with this unlawful campaign of political retribution.”
As Comfortably Smug noted on Twitter, everyone should be paying attention to the "insanity" taking place in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats are doing everything they can to target conservatives as part of their efforts to delegitimize the Court.
You can watch Thursday's hearing in its entirety here.