Durbin accuses Todd Blanche of lying under oath to avoid ‘offending’ Trump

Dick Durbin calling someone a liar under oath is not exactly breaking news. He's been doing versions of this act since before some of his colleagues were born. But the specific charge here matters less than the choreography around it. Republicans control the committee, they control the calendar, and they were moving Blanche's nomination forward the same day Durbin stood up to accuse him of perjury. That's not a process failure. That's the process working exactly as designed by whoever has the votes.

What's actually worth asking is whether Blanche's answers last month were careful lawyering or genuine contradiction. Those are different things, and Senate hearings have a way of blurring them on purpose. Nominees get coached to thread needles, and sometimes the needle snaps. If Durbin has the transcript receipts, put them side by side and let people see the discrepancy plainly instead of dressing it up with a motive ("to avoid offending Trump") that can't really be proven from the outside.

Democrats spent four years insisting institutional norms were sacred, then discovered convenient exceptions whenever it suited them. Republicans have done the same thing in reverse plenty of times. Neither side gets to claim the high ground on hearing-room theater. What we'd actually like to see is someone treat a perjury accusation as serious enough to slow down for, rather than as a talking point to lob on the way to a vote everyone already knows the outcome of.