On Gorsuch

Judge Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court confirmation hearing continues today, and I'll be frank with you: I feel pretty depressed about it. I'm (possibly unduly and definitely uncharacteristically) pessimistic that anything will stop his confirmation. Which is making it difficult for me to even pay attention to it.

Part of it is just the lingering agita that Merrick Garland was denied his opportunity to have a confirmation hearing. His seat was stolen. The rank injustice of that still bothers me, to put it mildly.

Part of it is the demoralization at the thought of this jerk (or some other jerk, if it weren't him) being nominated to the Court, and bringing with him all of his jerk positions.

And then there's the part where Gorsuch perfectly embodies what I call the perfidy of civility. He presents himself to the committee as a calm, measured person, despite the fact that he is a gross extremist who will roll back rights for marginalized people, given half a chance.

In this morning's session, for example, he glossed over his radically regressive views with this garbage, responding to a question from Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Gorsuch to Feinstein at SCOTUS confirmation hearing: "The bottom line ... is that I am a fair judge" https://t.co/tfZS7cf7sJ

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 21, 2017

GORSUCH: Senator, the bottom line, I think, is that I'd like to convey to you, from the bottom of my heart, is that I'm a fair judge. And I think if you ask people at the Tenth Circuit, "Is he a fair judge?", you're gonna get the answer that you got yesterday, from both Senator Bennet and Senator Gardner. And from General Katyal. And the same answer you got from Senator Allard and Senator Salazar ten years ago. And, Senator, I can't guarantee you more than that, but I can promise you absolutely nothing less.

FEINSTEIN: Okay.

The saccharine tone he uses. From the bottom of my heart. He's a fair judge. Ugh.

Fair to whom, exactly?

But this is how it goes. A conservative with extremist, harmful views shows up in a suit with a tidy haircut and promises that he's a nice guy, and a fair guy, and we're meant to believe his transparently dishonest treacle, instead of letting his atrocious record inform us about who he really is.

It's a sham. And I hate every second of it.