Barrett hearings start in shadow of election that’s 22 days away
  BY JACK CROWE October 12, 2020
AMY CONEY BARRETT'S CONFIRMATION HEARINGS begin today, in the shadow of a presidential election that is just 22 days away.
Democrats, well aware that the hearing will be watched by voters around the country — some of whom may not have appreciated Senator Dianne Feinstein's attack on Barrett's religious affiliation when she last appeared before the committee — plan to focus narrowly on the possibility that a solidified conservative majority might undercut the Affordable Care Act.
Like the Biden campaign, Judiciary Democrats will also make much of the timing of Barrett's nomination, endlessly repeating the justifications invoked by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and committee chairman Lindsey Graham when they refused to hold a vote to confirm Merrick Garland during President Obama's last year in office.
"We are all agreed on two starting points: One is the importance of the Affordable Care Act," Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told the Washington Post's Seung Min Kim. "And secondly, the extraordinary effort to drop everything — covid-19 relief and any other consideration by Congress — to focus exclusively on filling this Supreme Court vacancy."
While Democratic leaders have reportedly discouraged the histrionics that were on display during Barrett's confirmation to a federal appeals court, the topic of abortion — and the way that religion may have influenced Barrett's opinion on the subject — will likely prove irresistible to certain members of the committee. Here, Senator Kamala Harris of California, the vice-presidential nominee, comes to mind.
Harris famously grilled Brian Buescher, nominated to be a federal district judge in Nebraska, during his confirmation hearings in 2018:
"Since 1993, you have been a member of the Knights of Columbus, an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men. In 2016, Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus, described abortion as 'a legal regime that has resulted in more than 40 million deaths.' Mr. Anderson went on to say that 'abortion is the killing of the innocent on a massive scale.' Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman's right to choose when you joined the organization?"
Armed with countless media reports about Barrett's membership in People of Praise, a charismatic Christian group which used to refer to its female members as "handmaidens," the senator from California will find it difficult to avoid making Barrett's religious affiliation the central topic of discussion today, and may hurt her own ticket in the process.
Senator Mazie Hirono, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee and joined Harris in her previous attacks on the Knights of Columbus, has already hinted that she won't bite her tongue on Barrett's religion.
"Her religion is immaterial," Hirono told the Associated Press, before stipulating that it's not out of bounds to question "the views themselves that she has articulated."  Amy Coney Barrett to Say Courts 'Should Not Try' to Make Policy in Opening Remarks to Senate Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett plans to say that courts "should not try" to make policy, and should instead leave policy decisions to political branches of government, according to her planned opening statement for her Senate confirmation hearing.
"The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the People," she plans to say in opening remarks on Monday. "The public should not expect courts to do so, and courts should not try."  Senate Judiciary Committee member Chris Coons (D., Del.) on Sunday said that Republicans' push to confirm Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett ahead of the November 3 election "constitutes court packing" and called the judge's views "not just extreme," but "disqualifying."
Coons's comments came during an appearance on Chris Wallace's "Fox News Sunday," in which he defended Democrats' calls to add additional seats to the Supreme Court — the actual definition of court packing — in retaliation for the Senate going forward with Barrett's confirmation hearings only weeks before the election.
"I'm going to be laying out the ways in which Judge Barrett's views, her views on reaching back and reconsidering and overturning long settled precedent are not just extreme, they're disqualifying," he said.  Jaime Harrison Raised $57 Million in Third Quarter, Shattering Senate Fundraising Record Jaime Harrison, the Democratic challenger to Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), has shattered Senate fundraising records by hauling in $57 million during the third quarter.
The previous quarterly record of $38 million was set by Beto O'Rourke, during the former candidate's failed bid to unseat Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) in 2018. Harrison's total contributions in the third quarter of 2020 total twice as much as Graham has raised in the previous six quarters combined.
Democrats and affiliated organizations have upped their fundraising campaigns in a bid to win a Senate majority by focusing on competitive races. Harrison and Graham are currently in a dead heat, with the latest Quinnipiac poll showing both candidates with 48 percent support among likely voters.  Portland Protesters Topple Lincoln, Roosevelt Statues Protesters toppled statues of former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in Portland on Sunday night and smashed the entrance of the Oregon Historical Society during another night of violent protests that demonstrators dubbed the "Day of Rage."
The Roosevelt statue was reportedly pulled down shortly before 9 P.M., and the Lincoln statue in Portland's South Park Block fell about eight minutes later.
Afterwards, about 200 protesters ventured into other areas of downtown Portland and smashed storefronts. Many wore all black and carried various weapons, including night sticks.  Ben Sasse: Court Packing Is 'Suicide Bombing of Two Branches of Government' Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) on Sunday called Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's refusal to say whether he would add seats to the Supreme Court if elected "grotesque," saying court packing amounts to the "suicide bombing of two branches of government."
"It's grotesque that Vice President Biden won't answer that really basic question," Sasse said in an appearance on Fox News Sunday. "And it isn't just one branch of government, what they're really talking about or refusing to talk about, is the suicide bombing of two branches of government."
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