U.S. Senator Patty Murray met with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland this week. As could be expected, she followed up the meeting by calling on Senate Republicans to give Garland a “fair hearing.”
Murray then said, “I am in the U.S. Senate because of a Supreme Court hearing that went wrong.”
Of course, Murray was referring to the 1991 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that resulted in Anita Hill’s infamous accusations of sexual harassment by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Many believe that the hearing brought about the election women to the Senate in Washington, Illinois, and California to the Senate.
Apparently, Murray believes that Senate Republicans’ refusal to allow a hearing of a Supreme Court nominee during an election year is somehow comparable and would, ultimately, allow for a surge in Democrat elections.
Murray seems to be forgetting a rather important and highly relevant historical detail.
In 1992, Vice President Joe Biden, the same man who led the effort to denigrate the reputation of Clarence Thomas as the then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who argued that President George H.W. Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy until the presidential election was over.
Biden said that it was “essential” that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then. Via the New York Times:
“Some will criticize such a decision and say that it was nothing more than an attempt to save a seat on the court in hopes that a Democrat will be permitted to fill it, but that would not be our intention,” Mr. Biden said at the time. “It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is underway, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over.
“That is what is fair to the nominee and essential to the process. Otherwise, it seems to me,” he added, “we will be in deep trouble as an institution.”
Thus, Murray’s hypothesis is not logical. Prior to the 1992 elections, Democrats advocated refusing to confirm any nominee put forward by the first President Bush because the “political season” was in full swing. That, as history tells us and as Murray inadvertently admitted, didn’t hold Democrats back.
Murray, once again, proves why logic continues to be a problem for her, much as it has been since being elected back in 1992.
