Why Sotomayor's Confirmation Debate Is the D.C. Equivalent of Rock of Love

Listening to conservatives like Pat "She's an Affirmative Action Pick" Buchanan, Rush "He Picked the Hispanic" Limbaugh, and Tom "Latino KKK" Tancredo play the race card in attacking the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, I've been marveling at just how self-destructive they've become.

They have to know how bad this is for their party -- especially given the shifting demographics in America, and coming on the heels of the GOP xenophobia unleashed by the immigration debate last year. The Hispanic vote was a deciding factor in Obama's win (Hispanics went for Obama over McCain 67 percent to 31 percent), so the last thing the GOP needs is to be alienating Hispanic voters. BUT THEY JUST CAN'T HELP THEMSELVES!

It reminds me of Robert Downey Jr.'s quote after his umpteenth drug relapse: "It is like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of gunmetal."

The GOP attack dogs have an electoral shotgun in their mouth -- and they are addicted to the taste of gunmetal.

This week, I've heard numerous commentators describe the Supreme Court confirmation process as a "blood sport." I think of it more like D.C.'s version of reality TV: a bunch of spotlight-seeking people on their worst behavior in hopes of getting more air time. It's the political equivalent of Rock of Love.

Another thing that always gets me about the process: without fail, every presidential campaign features endless talk about how important the choice is because the next president will get to pick the next Supreme Court Justice -- "so vote with that in mind." So how come everyone then acts shocked and outraged when the guy who won the election then nominates someone who... shares his beliefs! Oh no, not that! How dare he?!

Newsflash people: that's what campaigns are about. To the victors go the spoils.

Here's another question: in 1998 Sotomayor was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate as a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. By a vote of 67-29, she was found worthy of the federal bench. What has she done in the last ten years to make the outcome any different? Joined the Kim Jong Il Fan Club? Voted for Adam Lambert instead of Kris Allen?

Here's the bottom line: Republicans know Sotomayor is going to be confirmed, so the howls of protest are all for show. It's all about fund-raising and rallying the base. But it's already so super-heated, what will be left to get worked up about by the time we get to the actual confirmation hearings?

Unless there are pubic hairs on Coke cans and secret porno rentals ("The Return of Long Dong Silver"!), it's going to be a total snooze.

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Comments

[littlejohn]

An affirmative action pick? Well, probably. But have the Repubs forgotten about Clarence Thomas, the epitome of affirmative action judges? And Thomas opposed affirmative action. Probably the worst justice ever.

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/judge-sonia-sotomayors-no_b_209384.html

[kankan]

American politics has always been full of champagne hypocrites and limousine liberals fighting over who is right or wrong and pointing out each other's misgivings. Because it is typical human nature to enjoy being surprised, the media seems to revel in the fact, just as much as the actors in the reported news jostle and fight for leverage. So it is of little surprise for the GOP to use complicated verbal tactics such as name calling to generate a sense of relevancy of their parties core beliefs to the audience of readers and viewers of "surprise me, I-like-the­-taste-of-­metal-in-m­y-mouth" media audience. To clarify, the GOP's core beliefs is that their race of people with their core beliefs will always dominate. Any activities to undermine their "White Supremacy" is another act of hypocrisy that should be automatically used against their political opponents. It is widely accepted that the GOP conservatives innately believe that their racism is more acceptable than other people's racial tendencies. How dare Obama "Out-Racist" them with his "Reverse-Racism"! Pretty ridiculus to an educated person, but it is the widely ignorant and uneducated audiences who hear the misinformation provided by GOP politics as facts instead of opinions.

[billw8017]

"champagne hypocrites and limousine liberals" --kankan

My only objection to class war is that my side is losing. You know the opposite of the "champagne" crowd are the grungy losers who rip their betters. We might prefer to "frame" these high and low/middle class resentments differently.

Obama doesn't have to be a die hard racist to be more sympathetic to people of colors known in the natural world. He will naturally build his team for loyalty and effectiveness, but it will be people like him. So, we have, for example, Larry Summers, former head of Harvard and the World Bank chosen by this Democratic Harvard Law grad to reconstruct the economic team that did so well for Bill Clinton. Clinton did some of the deregulation stuff that has done us so ill, but there were also some regulatory oversight and competence that spared his administration from the worse consequences of corporate greed run amok.

For you and me, money is wealth; wealth is freedom. For the government, they furnish a tool that facilitates commerce. If one person got ALL the money and everybody else was destitute, the hoards of roaming homeless would not be indications of prosperity. On a systemic level, everybody working and enjoying the products of their labor is true national wealth. We can leave the wealthy with their rich paper, while putting everybody to work so enriches the system and the people that everybody could be better off without diminishing the wealthy in any way.

[englishprof]

One has to ask oneself, just how upright, intelligent, and competent have the Caucasian country-club males of our culture been in the last eight or so years. How well have they run GM? How well have they run Citibank? How well do they run Blue Cross in enabling all Americans to have universal health care? How well-focused and advised have been their military adventures in Iraq? How concerned have they been over the New Orleans victims of Katrina? How concerned was their good ol' boy Scalia when it came to disenfranchising many Florida voters and putting Bush in the White House? The problem we are seeing, in the hysteria of idiots like Limbaugh, Gingrich, et al., is the fact that the truth hurts. Judge Sotomayer's comments ring true for me, and I'm a white Caucasian male. They are terrified over the prospect of having an outspoken person on the court as a counterbalance to Scalia.

[luziannagirl]

englishprof,

The sad fact to which the old, white men still ruling the Republican Party are apparently all oblivious, is that if it weren't for activist judges, blacks would still be suffering under apartheid and women still wouldn't be able to vote.

Recent criticism of Judge Sotomayor make Republicans look like a bunch of wealthy spoiled teenagers showing their a _ _ when somebody finally takes away the keys to the fine new car their Daddy gave them after they've gotten drunk and drove it off into the ditch.

Not exactly the way to "re-brand" the party, is it?

[bighat]

And who rules the dem party?

[jayjaga]

The most annoying aspect of all these GOP critics is that these people are well known racists jumping around Sotomayor!

[timberdoodle]

I don't understand why the Republicans are dragging her ethnic background into this fray after all she is a woman and everyone in the GOP knows women are inferior and should not be allowed on jobs males can do or get the same pay.

[kwinyan]

The Sotomayor controversy just isn't about the GOP imploding further, but the media attention that continues to enable it.

[dianhow]

YES Our do nothing overpaid corp news media has failed its duty to keep us well informed of FACTS.
Yet the let Cheney - Newt - Rove etc spread lies and misinformation all the time- with no tough follow ups or clarifications. They are sounding like all the other fat cats out there.
They have lost their ' cajones ' of they ever had any. Exceptions are Keith O & Maddow- who both dare to critique OBama.
we will Never find any of that fair and balanced reporting on FOX Phonies. i

[bighat]

Just like Olberman playing devil's advocate with Janeane Garafalo.

But I will agree with you on one thing. The major news stations have become editorialists not presenters of objective news.

But we will disagree on the position they take. NBC, CNBC, without a doubt MSNBC, ABC and CBS all lean left. NBC others in the family lean so far left the GE board would not even take questions from stockholders about objective news. Simply cut their micropohone off.

[Alison Victoria]

I just posted a video to you tube on this ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Z_0RmeKlE&feature=channel_page) because it seems that some conservatives have lost all sense of balance on this issue. Tancredo's misstatement of the motto of La Raza is one of the most ignorant things he said. And what would the KKK be "without white sheets and nooses?" What an idiot.

[HartlessBeest]

These gutless GOPers ought to stop whining and behaving like the morons they have revealed themselves to be. The typical behaviour of a pampered child who doesn’t get its way. Limbaugh and Cheney are the perfect example. The garbage they spew out may keep their Ditto Heads happy, but they will eventually become the object of ridicule!.

What more proof do we need to convince that TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS under the combined effort of GOP ‘leadership’ (NIXON, G.H.W. BUSH, REAGAN, G.W. BUSH), compared to the Democrats TWELVE YEARS, the GOP has done its utmost to undermine what most Americans had strived for and achieved and now discover it is all for naught. They, the GOP, and they only, are responsible for the financial collapses, job losses, dilapidated economy, and continue to keep us being embroiled in endless, fruitless military conflicts.

[dianhow]

So true- so why is it so few are aware of these FACTS ? Low information voters who still buy the GOP line of B S Plus the Corp owned over paid news media have failed us -

[kankan]

So few are aware of facts because ignorant and mis or less than educated folks need something smart to say. As much as these racist hypocrites cry hypocrite, there will always be a cynical and misinformed dummy to blurt out some ignorant hot mess to get some attention to remedy self-esteem issues and satisfy ego-tripping addictions.

The greatest failure is the constantly increase in college tuition and costs while a homeostasis of elementary and high school teacher pay. If American kids weren't so ignorant by the time they grew up, maybe commentry from GOP's wouldn't had been so effective during their rule.

[Essexgirl]

This is the Old White Guy backlash. It's evident in many other fields besides Supreme Court nominations. Many aging Caucasian males are having trouble coming to terms with the fact that the world no longer revolves solely around their agendas. (I'm an aging Caucasian female by the way, and I see it close up.) They'll get over themselves eventually. Or possibly given time they'll all just die out.

[dianhow]

Absolutely ! I'm an aging white female myself - and also see it up close.
Old white very wealthy elite men have run this country way too long. Lets give someone else a chance. They have been in power so long - they have become arrogant & power mad. think Cheney / Bush / Newt etc. and that Limbaugh has no class and no shame - he called Pelosi a
HAG and mad fun of Micheal J Fox . What a poor excuse for a man.
The far right has the gall to call Sotomayer a ' racist ' They are an embarrassment to the party -whatever is left of it - 21 % trying for 15 % .
Some of them need to look in the mirror- to see racism .

[worldview47]

do you want it to crack ?...do you know the story of Dorian Gray? imagine that would cause a lot of fear...

[larry278]

Since this is the USA, if there were pubic hair on Coke cans somebody would buy all of them; they's charge a super high price for cans of Coke that were contaminated with pubic hair. Again, since this is the USA, somebody else would knowingly & gladly pay a much higher price for Coke cans contaminated with pubic hair. America, what, a country?

[dianhow]

That comment does NOT apply to the Amercia I grew up in. We have stood for much good in the world- but after 20 + Years of GOP control - and the Reagan then Bush / W deregulation policies- and preemtive war has damaged our reputation in the world. Bush / Cheney made so many enemies with his Iraq war they lied us into. He bombed a country who never attacked us and
did not have the ability to do so. Its been proven that Sadaam was NOT involved in 9 / 11
America is not less safe. It may well be more safe - .now that the greedy - unethical war mongers are gone..

[SalemCat]

"20 + Years of GOP control"

What happened to Bill & Hillary ? Have you written them out of History ?

Geez, I wish we had them both back.

[Jakealoper]

I've heard both the right and even the left attack her over various issues dear to them. I just wish someone would say that Obama is nominating her cause she is simply the best, not because he thinks he needs a token on the Court.

[Star2000dancer]

I do'nt care what she is except she's a Bush pick & we'd be stuck with her just like we are with Thomas, forever. No!

[cjk002]

Huh?

Maybe you should do a little research before ranting.

She was nominated by Bush, but she was picked by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Senator from New York, under a deal struck between the Democratic­-controlle­d Senate and the first President Bush. Under the deal, The Republicans got to pick 4 judges, and the Democrats got to pick 1. She wasn't a Bush pick, in fact she was selected by one of the most liberal members of congress at the time.

[Dr. Sam]

THE IRONY OF REPUBLICAN RECIST RANTS

Look who is questioning SOTOMAYOR’S CREDENTIALS! Second-rate ideologues and discredited political operatives. It is ironic that those who routinely spew racists ranks on TV and radio shows--especially of the likes of Rush Limbaugh and former Congressman Tom Tancredo--are the ones shouting from the roof top about the so-called "Sotomayor racism" The irony reaches a higher octane when some of the not-so-smart question Sotomayor's academic credentials. Among them includes Karl Rove who didn't do well at school and dropped out of a second-rate college, RNC chair Michael Steele who took his bar admission's exam three times before he passed, and Limbaugh, a high school dropout. Strange world

[gernger]

I really don't see how dems in general, and those who strongly believe in women's rights to choose can accept this nominee since she has no stated opinion on abortion, and she is catholic. It won't take too much to over turn Roe v Wade.

[cjk002]

Maybe it's because most Catholics are pro-choice, and they also voted for Obama over McCain.

[gernger]

I hope you're right.