I rarely watch television during the daytime hours. I confine my TV watching to the evening hours when my wife Suzan asks me to scan Netflix and other channels for interesting movies.

Recently, I was drawn to daytime television to watch the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has been nominated for the upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

If you have watched as many of these hearings in your lifetime as I have, you realize that they are 80% t theater and 20% fact forums.

My first and most searing impression of Judge Jackson’s hearings was that if she was a white male the amount of political confrontation would have been cut in half. For some of the sitting senators, the idea of a black woman on the highest court in America is a bitter pill to swallow.

When you are a senator from the deep South no matter how much you posture about your fairness and your openness to people of all races, there is a chemistry in the bloodstream of a few of them that doesn’t allow them to swallow the thought of such a historic moment. It is fascinating to watch Lindsey Graham, who has voted for Judge Jackson’s elevation on three occasions, twist and turn to find ways to oppose her being seated on the high court.

Graham had plenty of company when he was joined by Sen. Tom Cotton(R-AR) and Senator Ted Cruz(R-TX) who bent over backwards to find ways to demonize a judge who has handled over 500 cases and has served on the federal bench for over 10 years.

Both Cotton and Cruz fashion themselves as future candidates for the White House and somehow detach their personalities from what a United States senator is supposed to be. Real senators ask questions, probe for facts and seek out a judicial philosophy.

Sen. Cruz, who spends most early mornings admiring himself in the mirror, decided that the books given to children in the Georgetown Day School was a way to attack the judge.

Because she is a trustee of the school, Cruz wanted her opinion on some books that dealt with racial issues.

Judge Jackson was quick to remind the senator that she was there for a hearing on a court vacancy and not involved with school book selection.

Sen. Cotton decided that one case out of the almost 600 cases heard by the judge was fair game because it involved a drug dealer. The judge pointed out that a law promoted by former President Trump was responsible for easing the guidelines for sentencing felons.

Some of the Republican senators were anxious to settle some scores that emerged from the hearings for Justice Barrett and Kavanaugh.

Sen. Graham asked Judge Jackson what her religion was as primarily because Sen. Feinstein(D-CA) had asked Justice Barrett about her religious philosophy and whether it would interfere with her thinking on the issue of abortion.

The more the hearings continued late into the evening, the more score-settling took place.

Over many decades, I have had the pleasure of either sitting in a Senate hearing room as a guest or watching a nomination fight on the late-night news.

My first such hearing was the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. That event was chaired by Judiciary Chair Joseph Biden. There was a deep undercurrent of racial politics watching a Pennsylvania senator attack Anita Hill, a black law professor at the University of Oklahoma who testified against Thomas.

Somehow, this current nomination battle has stirred up some ugly memories of past Southern resistance to a historic moment.

I recall the effort of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace to stop black students from attending the University of Alabama.

Despite Republican tactics, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will more than likely make it through the front door of the Supreme Court in the weeks to come, just like that little girl made it through the Alabama University portal.