The new low that various Republican Senators stooped to in the hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson was disgusting. They abased themselves so that they would see themselves on Twitter or be asked onto a TV program to further their lies and abhorrent behavior.
So today I just want to give you Cory Booker’s speech in full, as many people did not see it and many news outlets simply showed the highlights.
The man is a scholar and a gentleman. If only more of our leaders were this insightful and kind.
Your family and you speak to service, service, service. And I’m telling you right now, I’m not letting anybody in the senate steal my joy. I told you this at the beginning. I am embarrassed. It happened earlier today. I just look at you and I start getting full of emotion.
I'm jogging this morning, and I met at the end of the block this woman comes up on me and tackles me, an African-American woman. The look on her eyes, she just wanted to touch me. I think because I’m sitting so close to you, and tell me what it meant to her to watch you sitting where you are sitting.
And you did not get there because of some left-wing agenda. You didn't get here because of some dark money groups. You got here how every black woman in America has gotten anywhere has done, by being like Ginger Rogers said, "I did everything Fred Astaire did but backwards in heels" and so I am just sitting here saying nobody is going to make me angry, especially not people that are called in a conservative magazine demagogueish for what they are bringing up because it doesn't hold water.
I know, you and I, we appreciate something we get that a lot of my colleagues don't. I know Tim Scott does. When I came to this place, I was the fourth black person ever popularly elected to the United States Senate. I still remember a lot of mixed people, white folks, black folks work here, but at night when people come into clean this place, the percentage of minorities shifts a lot. First week I’m here, and somebody who has been here for decades doing the urgent work of the senate, the unglamorous work that goes on no matter who the office is, tells me, "I’m so happy you are here,' but he can't get the words out, and this man, my elder, starts crying. I just hugged him, and he kept telling me, "It's so good to see you here. Thank you, thank you, thank you."
I love my brother Tim Scott, we could write a dissertation on our disagreements. He gave the best speech on race, I wish I could've given the speech, but talking to the challenges and indignities still faced.
And you are here. I was in the white house with my democratic colleagues. Again, I mean my joy, I can't help it, and the president is asking who should we nominate, and I look at Kamala and we have a knowing glance, which we have had for years went she and I used to sit on this committee at times. I tried to get out to the president what it means, what it means.
And I want to tell you, when I look at you, this is why I get emotional. I'm sorry, you are a person that is so much more than your race and gender. You are a Christian, you are a mom, you are an intellect, you love books. Look for me, I’m sorry--but for me, I’m sorry, it's hard for me to look at you and not see my mom, not seen my cousins, one of whom had to sit behind you. She had to have your back. I see my ancestors and yours.
Nobody is going to steal the joy of that woman in the street or the calls I’m getting or the texts. Nobody is going to steal that joy. You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American. Your hero is Constance Baker Motley. Mine, she sat on my desk for the offices I have held, she is my icon of America. Her name is Harriet Tubman.
There is a love in this country that is extraordinary. You admitted it about your parents. They loved this nation, even though there were laws preventing them from getting together. There were laws in this country that would've prevented you from marrying your husband. It wasn't that long ago it was last generation.
But they didn't stop loving this country, even though this country didn't love them back. What were the words of your heroes and mine? What did Constance Baker Motley do? The country that she saw, insulted when she came out of law school, law firms wouldn't hire her because she was a woman. Did she become bitter? No, she used the constitution of this nation, she loved it so much, she wanted America to be America.
As Langston Hughes wrote, Let America be America again. The land that never has been yet, but yet must be, the land that everyone is free oh yes I say America was never America to me but I swear this oath America will be.
That is the story of how you got to this task, you and I and everyone here, generations of folks came here and said, America, I’m Irish, no dogs nor Irish need apply, but I’m going to show this country that I can be here, I can make this country love me as much as I love it. Chinese-Americans forced into slave labor, building a railroad, connecting our country saw the ugliest of America, but were going to build their home here. America, you may not love me yet. I will make this nation live up to its promise of hope. LGBTQ Americans from Stonewall, women of Seneca, hidden figures who did not even get their play until a Hollywood movie talked about them and how critical they were for us to defy gravity. All of these people loved America.
You faced insults here that were shocking to me. Well, actually not shocking. But you are here because of that kind of love. And nobody is taking this away from you.
So, you've got five more folks to go through. Five more of us. And then you can sit back and let us have all the debates. I'm going to tell you, it is going to be a well-charted senate floor, because it is not going to stop. They are going to accuse you of this and that. In honor of the person who shares your birthday, you might be called a communist.
But don't worry, my sister. Don't worry. God has got you. How do I know that? Because you are here. And I know what it has taken for you to sit in that seat.
Harriet Tubman is one of my heroes because the more I read about this person, she was viciously beaten. Cracked skull. She faced starvation, chased by dogs. And when she got to freedom, what did she do? Did you rest? Did she rest? No, she went back, again and again and again. The sky was full of stars, but she found the one that was a harbinger full of hope, for better days not just for her and those people who were enslaved, but a harbinger of hope for this country. She never gave up on America. Led troops in the civil war. She was involved in the suffrage movement.
And as I came back from my run, after being near-assaulted by someone on the street, I thought about her and how she looked up, she kept looking up. No matter what they did to her, she never stopped looking up. And that star, it was a harbinger of hope.
Today you are my star. You are my harbinger of hope. This country gets better and better and better. When that final vote happens, and you ascend onto the highest court in the land, I’m going to rejoice, and I’m going to tell you right now, the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, will be better because of you.
I felt such relief when Cory spoke (I feel on a 1st name basis with him) I don’t know who wept 1st Judge Jackson Browne or me. It’s a race to the bottom with these Repugnants, my mother the daughter of Irish immigrants remembers with bitterness the “No Irish or dogs need apply” signs. It’s pretty unbelievable that finally…finally the antilynching law was just signed yesterday. The struggle continues,
If only...