Sen. Barbara Boxer on Monday turned a discussion about why Afghanistan’s Supreme Court showed lenience to members of a mob that killed a woman in broad daylight into a joke about how the country might be taking lessons from Senate Republicans.
Tomasz Malinowski, who works on human rights issues at the State Department, noted the court’s recent decision related to the deceased woman during a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee. He then said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been pushing to appoint a woman to the nation’s highest court.
“One of the steps that President Ghani intended to take was appoint the first woman or women to the Afghan Supreme Court,” Malinowski said. “His appointments there have been blocked.”
“Well, wait a minute, where are they learning how to block appointments to the Supreme Court?” Boxer interjected. “I’m only kidding, that was a bad joke.”
It took Malinowski a moment to recover. “I was heading toward the same joke,” he replied, before pausing again. “So, um, yeah, I’m resisting all kinds of ways … yeah.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, who chaired the hearing, let the exchange pass without comment, but the fight over U.S. Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland has dominated the Senate floor in recent weeks. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., routinely faults Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley for denying Garland a hearing, often prompting passionate responses from the Iowa Republican.
Reid has made clear that he hopes the Supreme Court fight will make the normally-invincible Grassley vulnerable to Democratic challenger this year. Senate Democrats recruited former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge to run against Grassley; she visited her prospective colleagues in the Capitol on the same day that Reid quoted from local media outlets that had criticized Grassley’s decision to block Garland.
Senate Republicans are optimistic that the voters who care most about the court fight are conservatives or liberal activists, rather than the swing voters who might decide several close races around the country.
