If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to eliminate the roundelay involving opening statements and get right to the questioning of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, I, for one, would not be sad about that. I realize they’re aimed at the greater world outside the hearing room, and I realize that the historic basis for having a Senate at all is in large part to have a place where virtually unlimited bloviating can be safely indulged, but I don’t see much value in them beyond that.
On Day One, all the Democrats hit the theme of repealing the Affordable Care Act, with most of them telling stories about children whose lives have been saved because of it. On day one, the Republicans set a number of straw people aflame; Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who apparently was cutting B-roll for his 2024 presidential campaign ad, said that wondering about the judge’s attitude towards Griswold v. Connecticut, the landmark Supreme Court decision establishing a right to privacy, was anti-Catholic because Griswold was about birth control.
