If last month someone would’ve told me that Senator Ben Sasse would call out his fellow Republican law-makers for their attention-seeking antics and “jackassery”, I would’ve laughed in their face. Yet, it seems that my laughter would have been undeserved, as this is exactly what he did, apologetically addressing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her March 23rd Supreme Court hearing, with Senator Cruz fidgeting uncomfortably beside him, no less!

Comparing the proceedings of our nation to a poorly-written soap opera (not such a stretch these days), Sasse’s sheepish and rare display of bipartisanship is the equivalent of a horror scene. When Ben Sasse himself, Mr. “even-one-abortion-is-too-many”, is complaining about his party, it’s clear that something is very wrong.

The gravity of this situation should become clear when one hears the questions Honorable Judge Jackson was subjected to throughout her hearings. Faced with queries meant to entrap her into making some “gotcha” statement regarding hot topics like Critical Race Theory, whether babies could be racist, and the definition of the word “woman”, Judge Jackson reminded Republican lawmakers time and time again that she was a judge, and should be asked appropriate questions pertaining to the domain of the Supreme Court.

Leading the parade of purely idiotic questioners was Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, who spent his time in the limelight fearmongering and pressing Judge Jackson about hot button issues that had no relation to her capabilities or career as a judge. There is not a doubt in my mind regarding who Ben Sasse was referring to when he spoke of a Senator “mugging for short-term camera opportunities” and “trying to get on cable that night or create a viral video.”

One of Senator Cruz’s smears, the QAnon-esque suggestion that Judge Jackson is sympathetic to child predators, was also employed by his equally as idiotic co-workers, Senators Lindsay Graham and Josh Hawley. Unfortunately for Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest, this line of rhetoric was already dismissed by the conservative organization, National Review, as “meritless to the point of demagoguery.”

From bizarrely asking Judge Jackson whether he could identify as an Asian man, to attacking her position on the board of a school teaching anti-racist curriculum, despite the fact that his daughters attend such a school, Ted Cruz made an absolute mockery of Texas and the entire American judicial system during his time on the stand. It is truly saddening that the Honorable Judge Jackson was faced with such idiocy and disrespect at what was meant to be a civil and formal event. Ted, next time, why don’t you do us all a favor and stay in Cancun?