The late Nebraska senator Roman Hruska is little remembered these days. He served for more than two decades, from 1954 to 1976. And yet perhaps the only thing even most political junkies remember about him was his defense of Richard Nixon’s Supreme Court nominee G. Harrold Carswell. Here’s the Wikipedia entry:

Hruska is best remembered in American political history for a 1970 speech he made to the Senate urging them to confirm the nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court. Responding to criticism that Carswell had been a mediocre judge, Hruska claimed that: Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they, and a little chance? We can’t have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos.

This came to mind when I saw this headline of a review of the Captain Marvel movie over at Slate: “Finally, Women Have Their Own Mediocre Marvel Movie”

With the sub-headline:

“Captain Marvel is just as formulaic as countless other superhero films. That’s a triumph.”