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   Senate Republicans’ unhealthy fixation on child porn, by the numbers   
   By Dana Milbank   
      
      
      
      
   Judging by the numbers, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are   
   obsessed with child pornography.   
      
   In four days of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji   
   Brown Jackson, the phrase “child porn” (or “pornography” or   
   “pornographer”) was mentioned 165 times. There were also, according to   
   transcripts, 142 uses of “sex” (“sexual abuse,” “sexual assault,” “sexual   
   intercourse,” “sex crimes”), 15 of “pedophile,” 13 of “predators,” 18 of   
   “prepubescent” and nine of general pornography.   
      
   There were only 30 mentions of the First Amendment and 12 of the Bill of   
   Rights.   
      
   The Republican fixation on pornography continued during Monday’s round of   
   statements by senators before the committee advanced Jackson’s nomination   
   to the Senate floor. A preliminary transcript showed 41 mentions of   
   “porn” or “pornography” and 32 mentions of “sex offenders,” “sexual   
   assault” and the like.   
      
   Some of the references to sex and child pornography were made by   
   Democrats defending Jackson. But the bulk came from the likes of Sens.   
   Josh Hawley (Mo.), Ted Cruz (Tex.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Lindsey O. Graham   
   (S.C.) Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Mike Lee (Utah). They winked at the   
   QAnon conspiracy theorists who believe pedophiles control government by   
   portraying Jackson as an ally of monsters who sexually exploit children —   
   even though her sentencing record is typical and even though these same   
   Republicans elevated half a dozen Trump judicial nominees with similar   
   records in child pornography cases.   
      
   “I’m not suggesting she likes what’s happening in child pornography,”   
   Graham allowed. (Gee, thanks.) But “she has a chance to impose a sentence   
   that would deter [child pornography], and she chose not to.”   
      
   Lee accused Jackson of “minimizing” punishment for “commercialized   
   efforts to profit off child sex torture” and “sadomasochistic conduct.”   
   Cotton said, “the child pornography cases are just the most sensational   
   examples of her soft-on-crime attitude.”   
      
   The ever-mendacious Cruz claimed that “we just last week, after the   
   hearing, got information on another case, United States v. Weekes, of an   
   individual who raped his 13-year-old niece. Judge Jackson sentenced him   
   to half what the prosecutors wanted because he failed to register on a   
   sex registry.”   
      
   Actually, that case was mentioned during the hearings, on March 22 — in a   
   news release issued by Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans.   
      
   And Hawley stuffed a straw man. “Judge Jackson’s view is that we should   
   treat everyone more leniently because more and more people are committing   
   worse and worse child sex offenses,” he claimed, also alleging that   
   “we’ve been told things like child pornography is actually all a   
   conspiracy, it’s not real.”   
      
   Of course, nobody said child pornography is a conspiracy, or not real;   
   the supporting examples provided to me by Hawley’s office refer to the   
   QAnon conspiracy about pedophiles running the country.   
      
   In fairness, child pornography wasn’t Republicans’ only obsession. The   
   phrases “critical race theory” or “CRT” came up 66 times during the   
   hearing. Cotton claimed that Jackson “seems to have a real interest in   
   helping terrorists.” Cruz even argued that “the odds are over 100 percent   
   she will vote to give away U.S. sovereignty to international bodies.”   
      
   If it’s possible for the odds on anything to be over 100 percent, it’s   
   that Republicans will continue their peculiar preoccupation with child   
   pornography as the Jackson nomination goes to the Senate floor. “She has   
   a particularly curious view about certain kinds of criminal behavior. In   
   this particular case, people who would distribute child pornography, of   
   all things,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told Fox News   
   on Friday.   
      
   Republicans on the committee congratulated themselves for avoiding   
   “personal slanders” of the sort they said Democrats inflicted on Brett M.   
   Kavanaugh after women accused the Donald Trump nominee of sexual   
   misconduct. Yet, they opposed Jackson with the most grievous of personal   
   slanders: accusing the Black nominee of secretly promoting racially   
   divisive teaching, portraying her as a pal of terrorists and repeatedly   
   suggesting she endangers children by having a soft spot for perpetrators   
   of heinous sex crimes.   
      
   Graham: “Every judge who does what you’re doing is making it easier for   
   the children to be exploited.”   
      
   Cruz: “I also see a record of … advocacy as it concerns sexual   
   predators.”   
      
   Blackburn: “What’s your hidden agenda? Is it to let … child predators   
   back to the streets?”   
      
   And, of course, there was Hawley, who previewed the hearings by saying   
   Jackson’s record “endangers our children.” Three weeks — and eight   
   mentions of “prepubescent” — later, Hawley ended Monday where he began.   
   He asserted that a “core point” of his disagreement with Jackson is that   
   she believes the real victims of child pornography are the perpetrators,   
   not the children.   
      
   As “personal slander” goes, it doesn’t get much lower.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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