Bad Al Pacino impressions abound, from comedy clubs to the nation’s most exclusive club. Never mind the fact that a comic will more readily speak truth to power than the powerful will be honest about their true intentions. How else to explain today’s dress rehearsal for the stage adaptation of “. . . And Justice for All,” in which the Hart Senate Office Building was the venue for a bevy of Pacino impersonators, with performances by Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.); in which the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first annual Pacino-Fest, with audience participation, as evidenced by the theatricality of various committee members and chants from the crowd.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t this supposed to be Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing?
By joining the protests instead of condemning them, by attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights to ensure theirs was the first—and only—words on the matter, the world’s most deliberative body descended into deliberately orchestrated chaos.
The Democratic committee members also revealed themselves to be the allies of all they claim to despise, of a populist impulse that does more to silence speech than allow everyone a chance to speak; of an anti-democratic reflex to shout rather than listen; of contempt toward those they prefer to muzzle with noise than muffle with force; of complicity with those who have no problem using force to repel their enemies and to reject this Supreme Court nominee.
Like Pacino, these Democrats seem eager to take a flamethrower to this place.
Do not let the dryness of their delivery dull your senses, not when they show indifference to the protesters but express outrage about the nominee.
That these men and women will judge the fitness of an actual judge, that these individuals will weigh Judge Kavanaugh in the balances, and not find themselves wanting, that is a gross miscarriage of justice.