The 2020 tryouts have begun.
Sens. Kamala Harris’, D-Calif., and Cory Booker’s, D-N.J., grilling of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the Senate Judiciary Committee may be the only win with which Democrats walk away from this process.
One: Despite all of the shenanigans in the first two days of hearings, Kavanaugh will likely have the votes to be seated on the court.
Two: The hearings gave both Booker and Harris the ability to show their chops, on the networks and social media, to a Democratic base hungry for a new, younger face for the party for 2020.
[Related: Trump calls Kavanaugh hearing an ‘audition for the presidency’ for Democrats]
With Arizona Republican Jon Kyl appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey to replace the late John McCain and sworn into the Senate, Republicans have some breathing room on the Kavanaugh nomination. If one of the two pro-choice Republican senators –Susan Collins of Maine or Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – vote “no,” there are still 50 “yes” votes on the Republican side. With the vice president’s tiebreaker, that’s enough to confirm
That helps Republicans pick up red-state Democrats (Indiana’s Joe Donnelly, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, and North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp) to get Kavanaugh on the bench with bipartisan support.
These hearings then are mostly a competition: Can Kamala Harris outshine Cory Booker in the battle for the hearts of primary voters and grassroots online donors?
Despite vowing to not vote to confirm Kavanaugh ahead of the hearings (and then trying to stop the hearings) these hopefuls both sent out campaign type emails to their fundraising lists and will likely spend weeks raising money off of their performances.
That is what you do when you are running for your party’s nomination. You grab the stage, make the most of the moment and pounce. Just ask Donald Trump, he could teach a master class in that.
None of this is very helpful to Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who both are facing uphill battles to hold their red-state seats.
If the Democrats really were serious about taking the Senate back, they would not have done what they did Tuesday, instead they would have tried to act like they could govern, and that as a functional governing body they could hold serious, fair hearings.
In short, if you are Booker or Harris why not go in there saying, “We’re serious about governing. We’re going to give him a fair hearing. May not vote for him, but we’ll give him a fair hearing. Which you wouldn’t do for Merrick Garland.”
The answer: They appeared to only want to up their brand and ride the fire of the base who is more interested in winning than in good governing.
It also makes you wonder how invested Booker and Harris are in Democrats winning the Senate? Think about that, if you are running for president against a sitting president, what better place to be than punching up as part of the resistance.
