Obama nominates NewyoRican female to SCOTUS

[DinoDoc]

There seems to be a fairly large pool of qualified people, and that pool includes men, women, white people, black people, hispanic people, etc. The court is a tad low on females and has no hispanic presence. Given a large pool of qualified judges, I don't see a problem with chosing a hispanic female from the pool.

I actually wasn't aware that representing various minority groups was the job of a Justice. Will Pacific Islanders get a shout out with the next pick? Personally, I would think the judicial philosophy a pick ascribes to would be of greater import than the pigmentation of thier skin. More seriously as Kuci asks, how does it say anything meaningful about the status of minorities in society if we pick them for a job in order to placate or pander to thier respective group.

[-Jrabbit]

how does it say anything meaningful about the status of minorities in society

Easy -- because the minorities themselves think it's meaningful.

As Rufus noted, politics is an inevitable part of this. And hispanics are a very fast-growing voting bloc. So it's not so much a placating gesture as it is blatant pandering to a potentially key constituency. And even bright, informed, open-minded hispanics are fine with that. No one has pandered to them before, except in the heat of a campaign.

So this nomination says nothing about the "status of minorities in society."
Rather, it says, "We just locked up a big pile of votes in 2010/12."

[DinoDoc]

Rather, it says, "We just locked up a big pile of votes in 2010/12."

More realisticaly, I'd say that it is an attempt to buy him time with a constituency that was giving him grief that immigration wasn't on the front burner.

[-Jrabbit]

Tomato, tomahto.

[asleepathewheel]

Sotomayor is a fairly benign pick from what I've read, admittedly not much thus far. She is very young, I would prefer someone at least 5-10 years older, she's could be on the bench into the mid 2030's! She certainly has a spectacular pedigree and resume. The pro-aa stuff is a concern, but she has barely dealt with abortion (and then, ruled against the pro-choice perspective). Really, the talking heads vitriol is misplaced on this one (of course, maybe somethings will be dug up which change my opinion) and if the repubs get ugly on this, it may impact 2010.

Personally, I hope the repubs go balls to the wall on this and lose more seats in 2010 and the party gets replaced by the libs, but unfortunately the lack of good conservative leadership will continue in mediocrity under the GOP banner.

[Drake Tungsten]

Top Senate Republican strategists tell POLITICO that, barring unknown facts about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP plans no scorched-earth opposition to her confirmation as a Supreme Court justice.

More than 24 hours after the White House unveiling, no senator has come out in opposition to Sotomayor’s confirmation.

“The sentiment is overwhelming that the Senate should do due diligence but should not make a mountain out of a molehill,” said a top Senate Republican aide. “If there’s no ‘there’ there, we shouldn’t try to create one.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, sounded conciliatory during a round of television interviews on Wednesday.

“We need to all have a good hearing, take our time and do it right, and then the senators cast their vote up or down based on whether or not they think this is the kind of judge that should be on the court,” Sessions said on CNN’s “American Morning.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23022.html

GOP

[Drake Tungsten]

White House to Sonia Sotomayor critics: Be 'careful'

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs issued a pointed warning to opponents of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination Wednesday, urging critics to measure their words carefully during a politically charged confirmation debate.

“I think it is probably important for anybody involved in this debate to be exceedingly careful with the way in which they’ve decided to describe different aspects of this impending confirmation,” Gibbs said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23016.html

Obama administration

[-Jrabbit]

“The sentiment is overwhelming that the Senate should do due diligence but should not make a mountain out of a molehill,” said a top Senate Republican aide. “If there’s no ‘there’ there, we shouldn’t try to create one.”

GOP attempting to revive one of their oldest memes... civility.

Apparently Sotomayor has managed to keep that partially-eaten cloned stem-cell fetus well hidden...

[DinoDoc]

GOP attempting to revive one of their oldest memes... civility.

Lib replacing Lib on the Court won't trigger a political apocalypse. Now if Scalia drops dead on Obama's watch, that will trigger a political armageddon.

[-Jrabbit]

Still, a refreshing change in tone.

[DinoDoc]

I'll ask you the same quesation I asked DaShi. When have the Senate Republicans filibustered something this President wanted?

[MrFun]

OBNOXIOUS... BUT IN A GOOD WAY?

On the other hand, here's the possible good news in the Sotomayor nomination. A conservative legalist friend notes that the all-important 5th vote on the Supreme Court is Justice Anthony Kennedy's. The Reagan-appointed Kennedy has drifted to the left in recent years - in part (it's gossiped) because of his negative reactions to the brilliant but sometimes acerbic Antonin Scalia.

Having lost in 2008, Republicans had no hope of a conservative or even a moderate judicial nominee. What we should therefore be hoping for, my friend continues, is the most personally obnoxious liberal, someone certain to offend and irritate Kennedy - and push him careening back rightward. For this reason, the politic Elena Kagan would be the very worst pick from a conservative point of view. As dean of Harvard Law School, she proved herself adept at wooing conservative support. By contrast, if Jeffrey Rosen's reporting is correct, Sotomayor was almost unanimously disliked by her colleagues on the Second Circuit and even more by their clerks. And she's unlikely to gain humility from this latest promotion... so who could be better?

http://www.newmajority.com/ShowScroll.aspx?ID=2f0218a8-be6c-4380-9a44-f533327c01d4

Let Sotomayor through!

News flash for conservatives who oppose Sotomayor . . .

she IS a moderate! I consider anyone just to left or just to right of center basically almost as moderate as dead center.

[Drake Tungsten]

1. How does "Let Sotomayor through!" turn into opposition to Sotomayor in your twisted mind?

2. Sotomayor is a liberal judge, not a moderate. There doesn't seem to be any debate on this.

[MrFun]

I think that article was being sarcastic.

You can be liberal or conservative and still be moderate if you're only just to left or right of center. Liberal-moderate or conservative-moderate.

[Drake Tungsten]

“Once I started doing felonies, it became less hard. No matter how liberal I am, I’m still outraged by crimes of violence. Regardless of whether I can sympathize with the causes that lead these individuals to do these crimes, the effects are outrageous.” - Sonia Sotomayor

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/politics/27websotomayor.html

I think I'll take her word on her political leanings over yours...