Senate Republicans are blocking a temporary replacement for California Senator Diane Feinstein in the Judiciary Committee. The 89-year-old senator is suffering from shingles. Feinstein was hospitalized in March and has missed 60 votes this year. The Senate is controlled by Democrats by a slim 51-49 margin. Without Feinstein, Democrats don’t have the votes to get their judicial nominations through. I understand politics, but this is pathetic.
These two-faced, hypocritical Republicans are always talking about family values. They present themselves as upstanding citizens and hyper-religious paragons of virtue. Yet, they are taking advantage of an almost 90-year-old ailing great grandmother. Feinstein might be ill, but this move by the Republicans is flat out sick.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn tweeted that Monday that she would “not go along with Chuck Schumer’s plan to replace Senator Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee and pack the court with activist judges.”
Blackburn joins Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton in not supporting a temporary replacement for Feinstein. Both Blackburn and Cotton fancy themselves pious Christian conservatives.
So, they presumably asked themselves, “what would Jesus do in this situation”. And they somehow concluded that Jesus would prematurely hustle a sick senior citizen back to Washington.” That’s a very loving thing to do. Instead of the King James Bible, maybe they own a King Henry VIII version?
At Feinstein’s age, schlepping back to Washington to cast votes could even prove fatal. But these virtuous Republicans don’t care.
These Republican Senators spend countless hours wasting taxpayer’s dollars targeting drag queens, transgender children, prohibiting abortion and banning books. That’s a cheap and immature childlike version of morality. Real integrity is treating an elderly colleague with the dignity and respect they would reserve for themselves.
No one should be surprised by the way these Republicans are behaving. When Nancy Pelosi’s husband was hit in the head with a hammer by a right-wing stalker, many leading conservatives in Washington made jokes about it.
Is there any depth they won’t sink to? When you are reduced to bullying an 89-year-old woman, there is no stinking sewer you won’t wade in or dumpster you won’t dive in to gain political leverage.
After this tawdry episode, I never again want to hear conservatives talk about morality. The shocking treatment of Diane Feinstein shows exactly where they stand on questions of decency and family values.