Al Franken’s exaggerated complaints, about a Circuit Judge being too “deeply conservative” to even deserve a hearing, were flatly overruled. In a blistering speech on the Senate floor, Republican Chuck Grassley defiantly informed the Judiciary Committee he wasn’t going to let liberal Franken get away with it.

Grassley won’t let the liberal clown and his butt-hurt snowflake supporters arbitrarily abuse Senate procedure, by freezing out qualified candidates.

Democrats and left-wing liberals think refusing to sign a “blue slip” can act as a veto to override President Trump’s Circuit Judge picks. “As I’ve said all along, I won’t let the blue slip be abused. Some of my Democratic colleagues and left-wing outside groups mistakenly assert that the blue slip affords a home state senator veto power over a nominee. That is not true.” Senator Grassley proclaimed.

Sen. Charles (Chuck) Grassley, (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, announced Thursday on the Senate floor that the committee will proceed with hearings.

The Senator calendared testimony to consider David Stras, President Trump’s choice for appellate judge in the 8th Circuit, and Kyle Duncan, up for the 5th Circuit bench. “Today, I’m announcing that the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing for two circuit court nominees, each of whom has one home state senator who has not returned a blue slip containing a positive endorsement.” The confirmation hearings will begin November 29.

Duncan’s slip was not returned by GOP Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) but he previously explained that even though he won’t sign an endorsement, “he does not oppose having a hearing.”

Senator Grassley refused to blindly follow customary but non-binding protocol, reasoning that both of the picks are “well qualified and deserve the Judiciary Committee’s further consideration.” They may not be approved but at least they will be discussed and considered.

The conservative leader of the committee assures critics that he isn’t doing this lightly. “I won’t allow the White House to just steamroll home state senators,” as he laid out his legitimate concern that “a blue slip policy allowing a single senator to block a nominee from even receiving Committee consideration is a more extreme example of a counter-majoritarian practice.”

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) told his constituents back in September he was stonewalling because of his concerns “that if confirmed to the federal bench, Justice Stras would be a deeply conservative jurist.”

Franken didn’t always feel that way about Straus. As recently as May, Franken called him, “a committed public servant.” According to Franken’s record, he tells the folks back home, “highly qualified people should be confirmed to federal judicial posts without delay.”

The hypocrisy is blatant. “For someone who slammed ‘procedural tactics’ for obstructing ‘highly qualified people’ from serving on the federal bench, Al Franken should be ashamed of his hypocrisy,” Jeremy Adler spokesman for America Rising Squared said in a statement.

Franken’s opinion about Stras changed suddenly when he saw the man’s resume. “Early in his career, Justice Stras worked as a law clerk for Justice Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative members.” If that wasn’t bad enough, “Justice Stras’s professional background and record strongly suggest that, if confirmed, he would embrace the legacy of his role models and reliably rule in favor of powerful corporate interests over working people, and that he would place a high bar before plaintiffs seeking justice at work, at school, and at the ballot box.”

Franken issued a statement in September. “The president should be seeking out judges who bridge the issues that divide us, but I fear that Justice Stras’s views and philosophy would lead him to reinforce those divisions and steer the already conservative Eighth Circuit even further to the right.”

Under the “blue slip rule,” which is not a law, only a “precedent upheld by Senate tradition,” a home-state senator can block a nominee by refusing to return a signed slip, printed on blue paper, to the Judiciary Committee. Over the years, it has been up to individual chairmen of the committee to decide how much weight they should be given.

“Over the century of the use of the blue slip, different chairmen have used the blue slip in different ways,” a Congressional Research Service report states.

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) backs Grassley’s interpretation. “I must say that he has outlined a sensible use of the blue slip, which involves consultation but does not lead to a one-senator veto of a nominee,” McConnell agreed. Earlier this year, McConnell said the way he sees it, the slip should be nothing more than an indication of how the senator will ultimately vote, not something that would allow a circuit court nominee to be “blackballed.”

Grassley also pointed out that he was drawing a distinction between Circuit Court judges which represent a region, and district court judges that only represent a single state. In those cases, Senator Grassley feels the home state senator should have more leeway.