Conservative Calls Sotomayor "Obama's Harriet Miers"

Think Progress:

When the media began floating Circuit Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a possible Supreme Court nominee, one of the first comprehensive articles to come out was a piece by Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic. In the piece, Rosen allowed unnamed sources to attack Sotomayor as "not that smart" and lacking "penetrating" questions on the bench.

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[Artemis34]

Stand with Sotomayor
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/sotomayorstand
Sotomayer in Context
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/sotomayor-in-context.html
Judge Sotomayor’s Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/judge-sotomayors-appellate-opinions-in-civil-cases/

[OverIt]

Another round of comparisons. Sonia Sotomayor on the left and the also very qualified Sam Alito’s pre-S. Ct. record on the right. Thought they were especially conducive to comparison given similarity in educational background and career paths.

Sonia Sotomayor : Sam Alito

Princeton Undergrad summa cum laude (2nd in class) : Princeton Undergrad (nothing known about whether he achieved honors; would likely be listed if he did achieve honors)

Yale Law School (Yale Law Review Editor): Yale Law School (Yale Law Review Editor)

Assistant District Attorney for NY County* : US Attorney in New Jersey

U.S. District Ct. Judge for Southern Dist. of NY (nominated by G. H.W. Bush) : No trial court experience

Judge on US. Court of Appeals for 2ND Circuit** ( 11 years) : Judge on US Court of Appeals for much less prestigious 3RD Circuit (15 years)

Adjunct Prof. of Law at NYU Law School: No teaching experience

Visiting Professor of Law Columbia Law School: No teaching experience

*Working for Morgenthau who just retired at 90+ so no opportunity to become DA in NYC for last 40 years.

** Most highly-regarded appellate court outside of the Supreme Court itself.

[towny]

LMAO, This from the group that gave us Sarah Palin???????? Sotomayor is far from the Bush cleaning lady Miers

[OverIt]

Aside from XX chromosomes, I don't think Sotomayor has ANYTHING more in common with Southern Methodist University mascot Harriest Miers than the fact that they both graduated law school --- assuming SMU Law is actually accredited of course.

To paraphrase an analogy string I saw posted on a blog ---

Sonia Sotomayor is to Harriet Miers as:

Princeton undergrad summa cum laude : Southern Methodist University undergrad (no honors)

Yale Law, law review : Southern Methodist University Law school(no honors or law review)

Manhattan prosecutor under legendary Robert Morgenthau : no criminal law experience

6 years as Federal District Court Judge : No judicial Experience

10 years on 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals : No judicial Experience

Adjunct professor NYU School of Law : advisory board SMU law school

Obama - "Blown away" in meeting Sotomayor: Bush - Simply BLEW it with Harriet’s nomination!

[aLittle2theLeft]

Good work and funny.

[OverIt]

=)

[jmpurser]

Wow!

Good job and devastating comparison. The party of the reality deficit disorder strikes again!

[OverIt]

Thank you!

Forgot one.

Sonia Sotomayor is to Harriet Miers as:

Hillary Clinton : Sarah Palin.

[EducatedObserver]

While I think it is fairly obvious that Sotomayor is more of a proven nominee than was Miers, it is indisputible that a similar strain of indolent "box-ticking" was key in each candidate's selection.

In Mrs Miers' case, her being female appeared to be the primary qualification, whilst in the case of Miss Sotomayor, it is being female and hispanic which are paramount. Clearly, Mr Obama being the operator that he is, would not choose a candidate as glaringly weak as Mears, which is why his choice will be confirmed.

One looks forward to the day when candidates for the supreme court will be selected on merit alone.

[XLintLuvR]

Umm...did you not read or hear the FACT that she's imminently better credentialed at this time than any other justice was before their confirmations? That easily makes her qualified. How about instead of looking for reasons to disqualify her you admit that there may be many people that are well qualified for the job and with that being the case, he's more than welcome to choose from that pool of people because we can see that horrible choices the repubs make when they choose. The irony is that the one that's more down the middle is Souter who was chosen by a republican and turned out to be the complete opposite from what they expected.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

" Not that smart".... and this is from the Party that wants Michael Steele to be the face of their Party.

And their Minority " Leader " didn't know that Alatraz was not a viable solution for GITMO detainees because it became part of the 'National Park system' years ago. Minority 'Leader' Boehner needs to be brought 'up to speed'... or maybe he has a part time job playing Rumplestilskin.

[never-ever-give-up]

Please, Harriet Miers could not carry Judge Sotomayor's shoes. Of course, the GOP believes that anyone who does not look like them is unqualified.

[SouthPrairie]

Ahhhhhh.....Miers was rejected by the GOP predominately! Not the same at all. It is all a bunch of wishful thinking.

[hmmmmmer]

Fred Barnes is a dinosaur, a big blow hard that has such a high opinion of himself that it borders on the truly bizarre.

[Ozarks]

Rosen's "unamed sources" shows that Rosen is not a journalist just a hack who doesn't have a clue about Sotomayer's extremely competent background as a lawyer and jurist.

[liberalbug]

Mad because she doesn't ask penetrating questions from the bench? At least she asks questions, unlike your hero Clarence Thomas. Geez!

[negotiatethis]

Harriet who? GOP just gets dumber and dumber. Say goodbye in 2010 to the next round.

[Marnie1]

Go for it Rush et al. make the comparison with Harriet.

Then everybody can be reminded of her lack of judicial experience, her limited lawyering experience, and the criticism of the lack of legal gravitas in the legal documents and writings that she had produced.

None of those criticisms can be used against Sotomayor with any traction.

Oh yeah, and don't forget Bush chose a close Bushie empolyee of his. Obama didn't.

[MrWampler]

> Rosen allowed unnamed sources to attack Sotomayor as ... lacking "penetrating" questions on the bench.

Yeah, like all those questions that come out of Justice Thomas?

[brooklyncitizen]

Well to Republicans all women are interchangeable- simply because they cannot tell the difference between an intelligent and capable woman i.e., Michelle Obama, and Sotomayor, and the ones they pick and foist down our throats Palin, Condi Rice, Harriet Miers.

To the GOP we are just vagina americans.

[learntofly]

Republicans have got their supporters pegged - They're either sexist, and to them all women are interchangeable and never really qualified. And/or their supporters are so 'low-info' oriented that they are never really qualified to think for themselves and make a decision based on facts.