Republicans slammed for pushing 'transparently foolish excuses' to justify opposition to Ketanji Brown Jackson

In the wake of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's Senate questioning, more than one Republican has come forward saying they think she's highly qualified for the position but they won't be voting for her.

Writing for MSNBC this Monday, Steve Benen contends that the Republican Party "won’t gain anything tangible by opposing a nominee whom Republicans concede is highly qualified, but nearly all GOP senators will vote no anyway" in a effort to both appease their base and send the message the Republican will vote no for the simple fact that she was nominated by a Democratic president.

As Benen points out, the latter is exactly the strategy that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has in mind. According to reports from this weekend, McConnell "is putting public and private pressure on his Senate Republican colleagues to oppose President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, despite the historic nature of her nomination to be the first Black woman on the court."

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"Senate Republicans," Benen writes, "could look good voting for the first Black woman to serve on the high court, and in the process, the party could gain some shred of credibility in advance of the next time there’s a vacancy during a Democratic presidency."

But that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

"Instead, Senate Republicans have come up with transparently foolish excuses to justify their partisan opposition to Jackson, after confirmation hearings in which GOP senators embarrassed themselves, earning widespread public disapproval," Benen writes.

Read the full column over at MSNBC.