Does the Republican Party have any play in the book beyond shooting the messenger? Like, I understand that Trump’s only strategy with impeachment, or conspiracy, or sexual assault and harassment, is to cast aspersions on the people bringing the information to light. But is that really the only thing modern Republicans know how to do?

The ABA Journal reports that Republican senators got pissy with the ABA for rating various Republican judicial nominees “not qualified.”

Republican senators sparred over the ABA’s role in rating judicial nominees Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for a lawyer rated “not qualified” by the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah questioned the ABA’s role in the ratings process, while committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he thinks the ABA evaluations are helpful, according to coverage of the hearing by Law360. Two other Republican senators also criticized the ratings.

I mean, the easiest solve for this problem would be for President Trump and Mitch McConnell to stop nominating unqualified judges. I mean Christ, other Republican presidents managed to do it. It’s not hard to get a qualified rating from the freaking ABA.

The problem that the Trump administration keeps running into is that Republicans don’t want to promote judges — they want to promote partisan hacks who will use the courts to launder conservative ideology into the law. While there are tons of Republicans judges, not all of them can be expected to reliably push the Republican agenda without question, and so Trump and McConnell sometimes go with people who can be trusted to do their bidding, even if they manifestly lack the training and temperament we normally expect from judges.

The Republican senators are angry at the ABA for noticing.

What’s funny, though, is that even the Republicans’ objections are an entirely political and non-judicial fight. Republican senators have been willing to confirm “not qualified” judges. The ABA rating system bears no bearing on what Republicans will do. They just find it annoying because “not qualified” is a thing that their opponents understand. “Not qualified” is an easy Democratic talking point. For some reason, it’s hard for Democrats to make the argument, “Yes, this Republican is ‘qualified,’ he’s just also a crazy zealot who shouldn’t be allowed to talk about the Constitution, much less interpret it for the rest of us.” Democrats fail at making the case that conservative judges are “bad,” but they feel more comfortable going on offense when they can call somebody unqualified. Instead of simply nominating qualified crazy people, Republicans would rather try to force the ABA to change their whole rating system.

Trust me, I don’t give a damn about the rating system. When Democrats are in charge, they best be willing to nominate some “not qualified” progressives to fight these conservatives throughout our third branch of government. I remain available.

GOP senators clash over ABA during hearing for judicial nominee rated ‘not qualified’ [ABA Journal]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.