The hearings continue for potential SCOTUS justice Ketanj Brown, and the Republican senators in the judiciary committee are totally showing everyone their true colors (that color, of course, is white). Every one of them went into this with a determination to land a "gotcha" question, and in doing so showed their own blatant racism, sexism, and any other "ism" you can think of. There were so many dog whistles, the committee room floor was littered with dog shit.

Due to work and other obligations, I have not been able to watch the proceedings. I did manage to hear some of Ted Cruz's (R-TexASS) bullshit. He started out all nicey-nice, talking about how they both went to Harvard, and were only a year apart, blah, blah, blah. He mentioned MLK and quoted his "content of their character" and I screamed at the radio to take MLK's name out of his mouth. I kept saying "however, however, however", and Cruz didn't disappoint. He pivoted to CRT and the 1619 project and tried to hammer her on that. He even asked Ms. Brown if she thought babies were racist.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) - a horrid woman if there ever was one - hammered here on women's "issues", even asking her to define "woman". This was an obvious jab at the Trans community, and based on other comments from her, she'd be happy to roll back not just Roe -v- Wade, but women's privacy rights (and rights to birth control, property ownership, etc.)

When asked about Blackburn's comments, Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) replied that they never should have legalized interracial marriage. He tried to walk back those comments, claiming he "didn't understand the question", which he claims was about "state's rights". Not helping yourself, Braun. Leaving that decision to the states is what led to the Loving decision.

The other "issue" that was bound to be brought up (and was) is Brown's sentencing of sex offenders. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) (and future federal penitentiary inmate) tried to make it look like she was soft on crime. It didn't go well. She noted that the SCOTUS had allowed judges to use their judgement to deviate from mandatory sentencing guidelines, based on circumstances and the evidence (that decision written by Antonin Scalia). She asked Hawley (and the rest of the panel) to look at the full body of her work, as well as the work of others in the same jurisdiction, and naturally Hawley only wanted to focus on a single case. She also pointed out that the prosecutors wanted a lesser sentence than she imposed, but of course that was irrelevant for him.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) grilled her on her religious beliefs (which is galling in itself), before switching gears to Gitmo (Brown was a public defender for the inmates there). Graham - still pissed that Biden didn't choose a justice from SC - finally grabbed his pearls and huffed himself out of the room before throwing himself dramatically onto his fainting couch (okay - perhaps a bit of artistic license there).

Once again, it's the Mormon in the room - Sen Mitt Romney (R-UT) who is the voice of reason, calling the attacks on Brown's sex offender sentencing record "off course".

With two Democrats (Manchin and Sinema) being unreliable voters, there needs to be a couple Republicans who can be counted on to vote in favor of Brown's nomination. There are still more hearings and more grandstanding (and voter pandering) to get through, so buckle up - it's going to be a bumpy ride.