It’s been a while, but the vague aroma of chickenshit has begun to rise again within the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. It was prompted by the confirmation process of Adeel Mangi, a nominee for a seat on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. If he’s confirmed, Mangi would be the first Muslim ever appointed to that level of the federal judiciary. In a hearing last December, he was subjected to a level of outright Islamophobia by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republicans that would, in the late Molly Ivins’s immortal phrase, gag a maggot. And now, CNN tells us, the Democrats in the Senate are making sure their white flags are nice and crisp and starchy.
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At one point during Mangi’s confirmation hearing before the judiciary panel in December, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz highlighted Mangi’s connection to the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University–a group that Cruz said embraces “extremism and myopia” and has expressed antisemitic views. Mangi said he had served on the center’s advisory board, which met once a year and advised on areas of academic research, and that he had no knowledge of any events or speakers that the group might have hosted. “Do you condemn the atrocities of the Hamas terrorists?” Cruz asked. “The events of October 7 were a horror involving the deaths of innocent civilians,” Mangi responded. Pressed by the Texas Republican on whether there was any justification for the October 7 attacks, Mangi said: “I have no patience, none, for any attempts to justify or defend those events.”
Tailgunner Ted was not the only one taking his bigotry out for a walk that day. Judd Legum’s Popular Information
has been dogging this story for a while now, and it was careful to chronicle the unfolding ethical and moral calamity. Senator Jubilation T. Cornpone weighed in with his usual performative hay-shaking routine.
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), not to be outdone, asked Mangi if he “celebrate[s] 9/11.” Mangi addressed that smear directly. “I don’t think anyone can feel more strongly about what happened on 9/11 than someone who was there…I was in New York. I saw what happened. It was my city,” Mangi said. “I will condemn, without equivocation, any terrorism, any terrorist, any act of terrorism, or any defense of any act of terrorism.”
Unsurprisingly, Senator Lindsey Graham leaped onto the bandwagon, as did Senator Mike Lee, the konztitooshnal skolar from Utah. Both submitted written questions along the same foul theme. Graham distinguished himself by grilling Mangi on events that occurred after he had left the Rutgers center and on meetings that he did not attend. Outside observers were revolted by the spectacle.
The ADL said that “Mangi was subjected to aggressive questioning unrelated to his professional expertise or qualifications” and “was forced to provide responses to a wide range of inquiries regarding his views on global strategic considerations in a manner that inappropriately politicized these issues and raised serious questions regarding pretext and bias.” The ADL concluded that “berating the first American Muslim federal appellate judicial nominee with endless questions that appear to have been motivated by bias towards his religion is profoundly wrong.” The American Jewish Committee, the National Council of Jewish Women, and numerous other Jewish organizations also denounced the tactics used against Mangi.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a60254213/biden-nominated-adeel-mangi-circuit-court-appeals/So this is the result of Cortez Masto and Manchin's cowardice: they enable the Republicans' Islamophobia - and you don't have to be Muslim to see it.
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