Cory Booker does what he does best, talk for no purpose other than publicity

Cory Booker has set a record by speaking for 25 hours and 5 minutes on the Senate floor. He surpassed the old record held by Strom Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes back in 1957.

Thurmond, then a Democrat, was speaking in opposition to a civil rights bill. His marathon talk was a true filibuster because it held up the advancement of that legislation. Booker, speaking in opposition to the Trump administration in general, did not hold legislation up.

Why, then, did Booker talk for so long? He did so, I think, because liberal Democrats keep demanding that their representatives in Washington “do something.”

A long speech on the Senate floor counts as “something.” It also counts as nothing much. For Booker, though, it presented the opportunity to gain publicity and (he hopes) to become the leading voice of the resistance to Trump in D.C.

Chuck Schumer forfeited that status when he would not consent to shutting down the government. That really would have been something.

But Schumer realized that it would have hurt Democrats with voters who matter most— the ones looking for something constructive, not chaos and senseless grandstanding. So Schumer took one for the team, thereby giving Booker an opening to become grandstander-in-chief of the Democratic party — a role he was born to play.

Making the most of it, Booker got positive reviews from mainstream media organs. Here, for example, is what NPR (soon to lose government funding, it seems) gushed:

Sen. Cory Booker spent a full day standing on the Senate floor, delivering an impassioned speech in protest of the Trump administration's policies. His effort, which involved dozens of Senate Democrats, set a record for the longest speech on record in the chamber.

Booker wiped away tears and placed his hand over his heart as fellow Democrats cheered at the end of his 25-hour, 4-minute speech. Others were seen crying and some rushed to hug the visibly exhausted and emotional Booker.

I wish I had a nickel for every time Booker has placed his hand over his heart when speaking.

Here is Politico:

Cory Booker wrote himself into the Senate annals Tuesday, setting a new record for the chamber’s longest speech when he held the floor for more than 25 hours and surpassed the late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1957 filibuster against civil rights.

The New Jersey Democrat took the floor at 6:59 p.m. on Monday, saying he was doing so with the “intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able” in order to protest the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration.

Erick Erickson reminds us of what, by contrast, Politico said when Ted Cruz spoke for 21 hours against Obamacare:

From the beginning it was all over save for the theatrics. But Cruz offered plenty Tuesday by holding the Senate floor for hours about why Obamacare should cease to exist.

Erickson points to other outlets that were equally dismissive of Cruz. ABC News scoffed:

Analysts say his marathon talk was a mainly symbolic gesture of defiance, rather than a filibuster - a tactic made famous by the 1939 Jimmy Stewart film, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington - as it could not hold up Senate proceedings.

NBC News sniffed:

Democrats were largely dismissive of Cruz's effort, noting that it was not a formal filibuster since it had no effect of delaying or preventing a vote on the House-passed legislation.

Booker himself has never been a fan of the pseudo-filibuster. In 2022, he called it an “abuse of power.”

In Booker’s case, let’s call his show an abuse of impotence.