Cory Booker’s ‘Spartacus’ moment
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By Kathleen Parker,
It was Day Three of the Brett M. Kavanaugh hearings when Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) launched his 2020 presidential bid as a Thracian gladiator.
His eyes glimmering pools of earnestness, Booker girded his loins and told those in attendance he was going to do the unthinkable: He was going to put everything at risk, even his place in the U.S. Senate, and break the rules. He would release confidential documents that, Booker said, would expose Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh as a supporter of racial profiling.
Lest the immensity of the moment be lost on spectators, Booker sprang for the enduring image: “This is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment,” he said with a straight face.
Thursday night, Booker told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he didn’t know the emails had been released and insisted, almost boastfully, that he did too break the rules. One couldn’t help wondering whether the “I am Spartacus” bumper stickers and “Break Rules” T-shirts were already being printed.
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