White House Press Secretary Jem Psaki is a big mean meanie, it seems, because she wasn't the least bit open to a suggestion that the Biden administration "slow down" the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. No, not even to keep Republican critics happy! Why, it's almost as if Psaki knows what happens when Democratic presidents try to please GOP critics!

In a press briefing aboard Air Force One Tuesday, Psaki fielded a question about the breakneck pace of Jackson's confirmation schedule, which is actually less rushed than several others in history, as she pointed out. But it was a very serious inquiry, you see, because Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had issued a statement Monday warning against "rushing" Jackson's confirmation, because what about the "integrity of the vetting process," huh?

That's a little rich coming from the guy who, as chair of the committee in 2020, managed to get Amy Coney Barrett confirmed more quickly than a lot of people can get a dental appointment.

Here's audio, from Mediaite. Do not freak out, that's just a still image of Psaki, she's not going to move.

Reporter: Jen, Senator Grassley has expressed some concerns about the pace at which Chairman Durbin and Leader Schumer are planning to move ahead on the Supreme Court confirmation process.

And, you know, I know that the White House has in the past been very supportive of that. I know you’re closely coordinated, so I assume the same is true now.

But do you think that there should be a return to a pace more like the pre-Barrett pace? And, yes, I know that some of the others in the past were in this 25-ish-day range, but do you think that — is there any consideration in the White House of just slowing things down a bit, just by a few days or a week, to kind of stave off some of that criticism?

What's terrific about the question is that the reporter acknowledges that there's nothing all that unusual about a confirmation process going around 25 days — although just to add to that, it's also worth pointing out that Jackson has already faced Senate scrutiny, when she was confirmed last year to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. But hey, why not slow things down a bit to keep Republicans happy, as if meeting a GOP demand has ever satisfied them even once since Inauguration Day 2009?

Psaki, fortunately, had done her homework on this one:

Psaki: Well, I would say, first, if you look at the data and numbers from the past nominees and how long it has — took, what we’re doing is much closer to the timeframe for Justice Ginsburg, which was about 28 days. Justice Barrett was 13. And it’s slower than Sandra Day O’Connor’s, which was 21 days.

So the pace through which — and we are working, of course, in lockstep and close coordination with leaders on the Hill — is very much in line with the majority of nominees in recent history.

Okay, fine but what about the more stately, leisurely pace of other confirmations, like maybe those of Obama's nominees? Elena Kagan's confirmation took 87 days, so that Republican senators could decide whether there was something untoward about her playing softball, if you knew what they meant and everyone did. And Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation needed 66 days in order to give a million George Will types time to natter about how "empathy" would undermine the rule of law, and to freak out over the words "wise Latina" because the nominee might cede the whole Southwest to Mexico. It was a different time.

Perhaps the ideal window for confirmation, at least for Republicans, would be the amount of time it took to confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. That might fit their goals.

[Mediaite / USA Today]

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