The Republicans’ new strategy is to pretend that Trump never happened.

In many ways, Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearing on Monday for the attorney general was almost exactly what his 2016 Supreme Court hearing would have been. The issues raised by Republican senators – illegal immigration, weapons, executive power, big technology – are practically the Republican Party’s standard tariff. You could be excused if, based on the procedures, it looked like Donald Trump had never happened.

Minority ranking member Chuck Grassley gave the Republican tone to the proceedings, opening with a long list of complaints and complaints of actions, none of which had anything to do with Judge Garland. Explaining his refusal to hold a hearing for Garland as a 2016 SCOTUS nominee, Grassley agreed with the fluctuating rudeness, but later highlighted his own pain. He cited Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 hearing, expressing his anger that Democrats had the audacity to call Christine Blasey Ford to testify about an alleged sexual assault: “Yes, it is true that I did not give Judge Garland an audience.” , Grassley. said. “I also didn’t mischaracterize your record. I didn’t attack your character. I didn’t read your high school yearbook. I didn’t make your wife leave the audience in tears. I took a position on the audience and stayed and ready. I admire Judge Garland’s public service. ”In other words, something something something, remember Kavanaugh? Let the offense begin!

Yes, we heard about Hurricane Crossfire and the illegal searches of the Trump campaign. We heard about anti-racist protesters outside the Portland Court. We heard about the John Durham report and, of course, Hunter Biden. But for all intents and purposes, there was a big gap in the shape of Trump in these procedures that suggests that Senate Republicans expect us all to quickly forget everything Trump did in the past four years and everything they did to allow what he did. Even the repeated questioning about the DOJ’s investigation into the January 6 Capitol riots left Trump largely out of the mix, with vague references to upstream examinations of what caused them. Instead, we heard about Eric Holder, about James Comey, about Hillary Clinton.

But the Republicans? Still full of anger. In describing a Department of Justice that was “politicized and turned into a weapon”, under President Obama, Senator Ted Cruz apparently without irony was silent about what came next. Josh Hawley was on the verge of tears as he described the scourge of “political targeting” of innocent Republicans by the “Obama-Biden Whitehouse” and all the unjust attacks on Republicans. Senator Mike Lee tried to convince Garland to agree with him that Kristen Clarke, chosen to run the DOJ’s civil rights division, was anti-Semitic. (Garland refused to take the bait.) It’s hard to know whether Hawley, Cruz and Lee somehow simply forgot about the Trump years, or whether they really believe the rest of us have the short-term memories of a goldfish. In any case, it is a relief to delay our clocks to the old days of GOP floating freely complaining about Obama and Eric Holder and gun control and all the ways Republicans suffered at the hands of bloodthirsty Democrats. in the last years. The floating moan is probably the most tangible symbol of returning to business as usual.

Among the many reasons why Garland is the perfect nominee for this moment? His refusal to be offended or dragged into stupid conversations about topics of political discussion so old that they smell like old cheese. He kept reminding the committee that he has been around for a long time, saw many things and will not worry about their self-pity. His opening statement, in which he quoted the attorney general and then Supreme Court judge Robert Jackson, was a subtle and cautionary warning that he simply has no time for petty policies. Citing Jackson’s famous warning, Garland said: “The prosecutor has more control over life, freedom and reputation than anyone else in America. Although prosecutors at their best are one of the most beneficial forces in our society, when they act out of malice or other basic motives, they are one of the worst. ”He ended with Jackson’s warning that“ citizen security lies in the prosecutor who temper zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who fulfills the law and not the purposes of the factions, and who addresses the task with humility ”.

It was an elegant formulation and, with all the talk of Hunter Biden and James Comey and the political processes of innocent Republicans, it seemed relevant and deeply out of step with our current moment. Perhaps more than anything, it was an indication that Garland, the Department of Justice and the country are advancing more and more. In response, Senate Republicans seem to be retreating to the tasteless comforts offered in 2016, rooting for Fast and Furious (really Ted Cuz?) And the good old days when Donald J. Trump was still just a TV clown.