By David Mansheim, Parkersburg

I was disgusted by the rude and insulting behavior from most of the Republican members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at the confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

The ranking minority member of the committee is Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, and as such he has substantial influence over his own committee members. He chose, however, to allow the thuggish disgraceful behavior emanating from Senators Graham, Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, Lee, Blackburn, and Cornyn toward the witness.

There is only one word to describe the shameful vituperations directed against this extremely well-qualified and first Black woman ever nominated to the Supreme Court – McCarthyism.

McCarthyism refers to tactics employed by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1953 to bully witnesses, convict them by innuendo, and attempt to destroy their career. It is the perfect synonym to describe the kind of unsubstantiated demagogic attacks waged by Grassley’s committee members.

And for that, I can only echo Joseph Nye Welch. Senator Grassley, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

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This Letter to the Editor first appeared in The Courier on March 27, 2022.