After Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii (with an assist from her California colleague Kamala Harris and John Kennedy) decided to declare the Knights of Columbus a terrorist group or something, there was some significant pushback from the rest of the upper chamber. They went so far as to pass a unanimous consent decree (introduced by Ben Sasse) reaffirming the unconstitutionality of religious tests for office and rebuking the Senators raising these issues. So that probably showed Hirono the error of her ways and convinced her to slow her roll, right?

Don’t be silly. She went after Sasse as some sort of alt-right foot soldier and doubled down on her claims about Catholics. (Daily Caller)

After Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse introduced a resolution reaffirming the unconstitutionality of religious tests for public office, Hirono once again went on the attack accusing the mild-mannered Nebraskan of taking an “alt-right” position.

“If my colleague, the junior Senator from Nebraska, wants to embrace the alt-right’s position by offering this resolution, that is his business,” Hirono said on the Senate floor on Friday. “Rather than passing a resolution to address a problem that doesn’t exist, we should focus on something real, like ending this totally unnecessary, unjustified shutdown.”

The Senate agreed to Sasse’s resolution by unanimous consent Wednesday.

Two items of note about this outburst really jump out at me. First of all, if you think Ben Sasse is somehow representative of the “alt-right” I’ve got some lovely swampland to sell you. He’s one of the most outspoken critics of the President in the GOP and is about as far as you can get from whatever the current definition of alt-right happens to be.

The other point is that Hirono apparently thinks the concept of religious tests for office being unconstitutional is somehow an alt-right position. I guess the Founders were alt-right characters also. I mean, it’s only printed out in completely unambiguous terms right in the Constitution.

Article VI: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Did somebody mention that Hirono was thinking about running for President? (I mean, why not? Pretty much every other Democratic Senator seems to be doing it.) If so, has anyone told her that she would have to take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution if she won? And didn’t she take that oath already anyway? Perhaps she should read it again.

UPDATE: (Jazz)

Sasse’s office responds and doesn’t seem to be a fan of the “alt-right” tag.

.@BenSasse has gone after the alt-right. @maziehirono is recklessly using the label “alt-right” to smear 2 million Catholics who volunteer in their communities. It’s laughably stupid, but it’s also insulting to the folks who face hate from the actual alt-right and neo-nazis. https://t.co/vElTB2iNob

— James Wegmann (@jameswegmann) January 19, 2019