Senate Democrats Destroy Their Committee in the Service of a Cause Many of Them Don’t Believe In

At yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting, Democrats resumed their modern-day exercise in McCarthyism, wielding the committee’s power to authorize subpoenas of private individuals without any valid legislative purpose. Their agenda, of course, is to use their positions to harass and silence their political opponents. Recall that the last time they tried to do this, Chairman Richard Durbin abruptly adjourned the markup. Republicans had come armed with 88 amendments that would have exposed the Democrats’ far-reaching hypocrisy and delved into their sordid campaign to destroy the Supreme Court.

This time, Republicans came prepared with 177 amendments. But Chairman Durbin did not entertain a single one of them. He instead defied committee rules. His intentions were apparent when he began by steamrolling through roll-call votes on the extremist district court nominees Mustafa Kasubhai and Eumi Lee without allowing several objecting Republicans the chance to speak about them. “Mr. Chairman,” thundered Senator John Cornyn, “you just destroyed one of the most important committees in the United States Senate. And you have set a precedent which will be repeated every time one party or the other takes advantage and takes the low road. It sets a precedent that will then become the norm. Congratulations on destroying the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Ranking member Lindsey Graham sounded the same theme and bluntly called out the Democrats for pushing their “politically motivated” ruse: “There’s not an ounce of legislative purpose in these subpoenas because if you really gave a damn about legislation to fix the problem, you would bring the bill up to the floor that has passed this committee” — a reference to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s lingering and disastrous SCERT bill that would wreak havoc on the Court under the guise of promoting ethics. “So yeah, this is really bad.” Graham was equally blunt in identifying the motivation for pushing both that legislation and now the subpoenas: “This is about an ongoing effort to destroy this Court, to destroy Clarence Thomas’ reputation, to pack the Court, to get your way, to make sure the Supreme Court [that] exists today can’t function. . . . You know it’s not gonna work. You’re trying to please a group. You’re not trying to make this committee function.”

As if to prove the point, Durbin proceeded to violate several committee rules to authorize — or purport to authorize — the subpoenas. He ignored Rule IV’s bar against having a vote over a member’s objection without a roll call in which affirmative votes to end debate include a member of the minority. He conducted the vote on subpoenas without the required quorum after the committee Republicans left the room. The vote also violated the two-hour rule in the Senate’s standing rules by concluding after 12 p.m.

Even Democratic Senator Chris Coons had concerns about how Senator Durbin chaired yesterday’s markup, saying he was “puzzled as to why colleagues were not being allowed to speak to nominees since that is an important tradition of the committee.” He worried that the bipartisan work of the committee would be “put at risk” as a result.

But what do rules and traditions matter, really, when there are dark-money groups to please? Praise for the Democrats came in lockstep from organizations including Demand Justice, People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, Take Back the Court, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the American Constitution Society, Common Cause, the Center for American Progress, Stand Up America, Accountable.US, and ProPublica. But they should hold off on the champagne. After the markup, Judiciary Republicans stated their own position, consistent with the rules, that the subpoena authorization had failed.

Chairman Durbin has not appeared particularly enthusiastic about conducting this McCarthyistic exercise, and Senator Tom Cotton has just given us a public glimpse of the inside story of what seems to be a number of reluctant Democrats. The following are the highlights:

These Senate Democrats will have years to regret the damage they just did to the institution they serve — and for a cause many of them do not believe in.