Thread by @jbendery

Dick Durbin opens this morning's Judiciary Committee hearing by saying he's moving forward with an appeals court nominee from Tennessee without a blue slip from his state's two GOP senators.

"Republicans chose to abandon this senatorial courtesy."

After some back and forth with Dem and GOP senators, Durbin says the next few years will be Dems "trying to balance the books" with blue slip rules, but perhaps they can agree to a standard for after 2024 that everyone is happy with.

Marsha Blackburn says one of her concerns with this TN appeals court nominee, Andre Mathis, is his "rap sheet" including 3 speeding tickets 10+ years ago.

One was for 5mph over the speed limit.

Durbin: "If speeding tickets are a rap sheet, I've got one too."

Mathis chokes up saying he regrets getting 3 speeding tickets 10+ years ago and not paying them, saying, "I feel like I've embarrassed my family."

He says he simply forgot to pay them and didn't realize they were overdue, which led to his drivers license being suspended.

This focus on Mathis' unpaid speeding tickets from 10+ years ago seems unnecessarily humiliating.

Also remember that time last year Marsha Blackburn flashed her congressional pin after being pulled over? cnn.com/2021/03/26/pol…

(h/t @AndrewFmOregon)

GOP Sen. John Kennedy is up and references Denzel Washington, "who is one of the five coolest people on the planet."

Here's the full story on what went down here: huffpost.com/entry/marsha-b…

Oh my god Durbin ended the hearing by saying this to Mathis:

"The Bar Association may have found you unanimously well qualified, this chair of this committee finds your children unanimously well behaved. Please introduce them." 🌽