September 4, 2018

Republicans Who Didn’t Even Hold a Hearing on Merrick Garland Complain Democrats Are Destroying Norms

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Here is Republican Sen. John Cornyn complaining that Democrats have been rude at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.

“This is the first confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court justice that I’ve seen basically according to mob rule. We have rules in the senate. We have norms for decorum…it’s hard to take it seriously when every single one of our colleagues on the Democratic side of the Senate Judiciary Committee has announced opposition to this nominee even before today’s hearing. So it’s hard to take seriously their claim that somehow they can’t do their job because they have been denied access to attorney client or executive privilege documents.”

The Senate has rules! The Senate has norms! The Democrats have already announced opposition to the nominee! My stars! 

What about this norm?

These cats didn’t even give Merrick Garland a hearing! 

As much as we would all like to take a stroll through Senate Norm Cemetery to mourn “Being Nice,” it’s impossible to get to that particular tomb without tripping over the grave of dearly departed “Holding Hearings At All.”

It’s going to be a long week.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate