Joe Biden nominated Spokane County Superior Court Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren for district judge for the Eastern District of Washington. To say she did not do well when she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee is an understatement. Even Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is slamming her nomination.

She was appointed to the bench by Governor Jay Inslee, becoming the first black female judge in Eastern Washington. She may prove to be a box-checker, not qualified for the job for which she is nominated to carry out. That’s not to be catty. The evidence popped up during her hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) asked two very basic questions a judge, certainly a federal judicial nominee for a lifetime position. Bjelkengren flunked the pop quiz.

I would wager that most Americans would not be able to answer these two questions posed by Senator Kennedy but Bjelkengren should have had no problem answering basic questions last week.

“Tell me what Article V of the Constitution does,” Kennedy asked of Spokane County Superior Court Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s proceedings Wednesday.

“Article V is not coming to mind at the moment,” Bjelkengren responded.

“How about Article II?” Kennedy pressed.

“Neither is Article II,” Bjelkengren blanked, leaving Kennedy scratching his head.

Article V lays out the process for ratifying amendments to the Constitution, while Article II invests the office of the president with executive powers.

She didn’t even try to deliver an answer that was in the ballpark. She just whiffed both questions. How embarrassing. But, that assumes that Democrats can be embarrassed and I no longer believe that to be the case. They just don’t care as long as they get the power they pursue. It’s the Constitution we’re talking about here. Then, to the shock of the Senator from Louisiana, she couldn’t answer a third question. Kennedy asked her to define “purposivism,” the method by which judges interpret statutes. Nope. She couldn’t do it. She justified her inability to answer that question by saying, “In my 12 years as an assistant attorney general, in my nine years as a judge, I was not faced with that precise question.” Oh. Ok, then.

Wow. Parents, she is a graduate of Gonzaga University School of Law, so keep that little tidbit filed away for when it comes time for your child to pursue his or her dream of going to law school.

McConnell hadn’t made any headlines over this shocking line of questioning last week. Today, though, he let it rip on Twitter.

Is this the caliber of legal expert with which President Biden is filling the federal bench? For lifetime appointments?

The American people deserve the best and brightest. https://t.co/pRjsKBO94d

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) January 31, 2023

I must say, I’m liking this wave of fresh aggression against Democrats and their cohorts in the media exhibited by both McConnell and Speaker McCarthy. More of it, please. Republicans need leaders who lead and speak out. Voters need to see Republicans willing to call out bad behavior from reporters and also poor nominee choices from the Biden administration. Were there no other progressive women in the Pacific Northwest to nominate for this position? Are progressive men out of the running for nominations?

Most importantly, why didn’t someone in the Biden administration properly vet and coach this woman? Good Lord.

In 2017, Matthew Peterson, a nominee to the federal judiciary during the Trump administration, withdrew from consideration after a video showed him unable to answer questions from Senator Kennedy. Kennedy told him at the time, “Just because you’ve seen ‘My Cousin Vinny’ doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.”

That’s something Bjelkengren should think about. Biden is more concerned about finding identity box-checkers than qualified people to put into positions of power. Biden continues to lower the bar instead of demanding more of public servants. That is to no one’s benefit.