Sheldon Whitehouse: “I rise this evening, now for the 22nd time, to keep unmasking the far-right scheme to capture and control our Supreme…”

“I rise this evening, now for the 22nd time, to keep unmasking the far-right scheme to capture and control our Supreme Court. This scheme is funded by creepy rightwing billionaires who stay out of the limelight and let others--namely, Leonard Leo and his crew--operate their scheme. How are they benefiting from the scheme? It is hard to track which rightwing billionaires are involved--and that is by design--but thanks to intrepid reporting from ProPublica and others, we are learning more all the time. And every day it becomes harder for the billionaire- friendly Justices and their political allies to pretend, with a straight face, that all is kosher at the Court. I have previously described the noxious cocktail of this court capture scheme: creepy rightwing billionaires, phony front groups, amenable Justices, large sums of money, and secrecy. I don't know whether they take that shaken or stirred, but those seem to be the common ingredients. To chill that Court-capture cocktail, we can add one more ingredient: Alaskan glacier ice. But I will get back to that later. First, let's review the origin story of Justice Samuel Alito. It begins with the bipartisan Senate rejection of Judge Robert Bork, which infuriated Bork's far-right backers. On the Court were Justices Souter and Stevens--both Republican appointees--but they wouldn't help the billionaires, so the angry chant went out from the far right: No more Souters. No more Stevenses. Then President George W.…”