A Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting Thursday morning quickly devolved into a partisan shootout as Republicans on the upper chamber’s legal affairs panel kicked off a revolt against Democrats hoping to authorize subpoenas related to their Supreme Court ethics probe. After weeks of delays, the Judiciary Committee was finally set Thursday to debate and vote on legal summonses for conservative billionaire Harlan Crow and legal activist Leonard Leo — who lawmakers say had improper financial relationships with Supreme Court justices. Although the Judiciary Committee had already debated the nominees up for a vote, Republicans were incensed by the move. The panel quickly devolved into a cage match, with lawmakers shouting over the committee clerk who was attempting to push through a roll call vote. As Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) tried to move to a vote on a pair of judicial appointments the panel had already debated, senators, who said they hadn’t yet had the opportunity to speak on the nominees, protested. “Are we going to have any opportunity to speak on the nominees?” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked, to which Durbin responded: “We’ve already done that at great length.” Several other Republican members of the committee protested as Durbin continued, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the panel, exclaiming, “Come on, man!” Republican senators shouted objections throughout the roll call votes. “You’re going to have a lot of consequences if you go down this road,” Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton yelled across the chamber at his Democratic colleagues. “I’m cautioning you all.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked: “So you’re telling us to shut up? You want us to shut up? That’s what you’re saying.” “You’re just going to sit there and ignore us?” Cotton asked Durbin. “I guess Sen. Durbin is not going to let women speak either. I thought that was sacrosanct in your party.” “You just destroyed one of the most important committees in the United States Senate,” seethed Texas Republican John Cornyn. “You understand, what goes around comes around.” Ranking Member Graham joined his colleagues in criticizing Durbin’s administration of the panel. “This is so unnecessary,” he said. “To ruin this committee over a political exercise is going nowhere.” The shouting match, which lasted several minutes and ground proceedings to a halt, was surely a preview of things to come as the Judiciary Committee is set to move forward with debate on Democrats’ proposed subpoenas.