"Slammin & Rammin Sotomayor" vs. "Sotomayor the Racist"--What is the GOP Thinking?

Talk about being in a state of confusion--man the GOP sinks lower into the political abyss everyday. Chairman Michael Steele has been very consistent that the GOP would be "careful" in its handling of Judge Sotomayor while at the same time carefully scrutinizing her record. Ok, I have no problem with that.

Just yesterday, however, Steele was quoted as saying, there will be no "slammin and rammin" of Judge Sotomayor. in reference to the tough and racially charged language that has been thrown around about Sotomayor since her nomination was announced on Tuesday.

eeeh hem (cough cough) what Michael? Come on you hold a juris doctorate degree can't you elevate the speech just a bit when referring to the likely next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court--"slammin and rammin" it sounds like the title of a late night HBO "adult" movie that parents watch after their children have gone to sleep. "Slammin and rammin" it will be years before I forget that one.

Turn to the party's other side (read dark side), however, and what I have heard from former Speaker Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio hosts and others has left me speechless. One controversial conservative radio talk show host from California compared the Latino organization "La Raza" (Judge Sotomayor is a member) to "the KKK without hoods".

The word "racist" or "reverse racist" has been used so many times to describe Judge Sotomayor that I have lost count. Senators Hatch, Cornyn and Sessions have all been far more restrained and have condemned such language or descriptions of Sotomayor as a "racist" as "inappropriate and wrong" but it may be too little too late folks.

I am presently at a conference in Florida where I am with 600 professional women of color, all of who attended the nation's finest schools, earn in excess of six figures, run or work at America's most successful small &large companies, and who pay attention to politics.

The feedback I have gotten as one of the few republicans in attendance (we did a panel yesterday titled "The Obama Effect" which was moderated by CNN's Soledad O'Brien) has been very thoughtful actually. Person after person has pulled me aside and thanked me for being a "thoughful Kemp/Powell" republican and asked me what can they do to try and help move the GOP back to its former more reasonable self. There is genuine concern among even a 90% pro-Obama audience that the GOP is endangering our viable two party system of governance with its inflammatory and angry rhetoric surrounding race. Even Congressswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) who was on the panel with me said she believes America needs a "viable two party-system" in place. I agree.

The problem is that you cannot build a national party or real coalitions with anger and division. What does it benefit the GOP to attack Judge Sotomayor as a "racist" and to pick apart her statement on how her gender and race shape her views when Justice Alito said damned near the same thing in his confirmation hearings when he made reference to his Italian immigrant ancestry and how it shapes his view.

My concern is that the so-called fringe of the GOP is destroying what is left of the Republican Party's credbility on issues of inclusion, civility, and fairness. And Chairman Steele continues to choose his words poorly when he speaks on just about anything. The loud angry voices of Limbaugh and others are drowning out the more common-sense, reasonable and often bi-partisan voices in the party (which includes many conservatives by the way).

In the final analysis--the GOP cannot score political points by "ramming" Sotomayor. It has a far better platform against this President and this Congress by sticking with National Security and Economic issues versus so-called "cultural issues". This is where the President and Congress will have their most difficult challanges and this is an area where historically the GOP has been able to win over public opinion. Time will tell which side of the GOP coin will win out--but for now, once again the GOP is in a slammin mess over the issue of race.

Comments

[rbenjamin]

The so-called fringe you speak of is pretty much the whole out-of-control Republican Surrey - it's reasonable, God forbid intellectual, people such as yourself who are the frilly stuff on top. Jump, or you are going over the cliff too. Don't fret about the issues of inclusion, civility, & fairness. That luggage fell off the back when Nixon hit the first big bump way back in the '70s. As for National Security and Economic Issues - Dubya, Cheney & Rumsfeld (to name a few) strewed those items over 2000-2008. Divisive Social Issues are all the Republican Party has left to work with, and yes,. you should be very afraid. But don't fear for political diversity and functional opposition to the Democratic Party. These will arise from the impending wreck (2012), but under new management. There is nothing of value left in the Republican Brand. If you believe in accountability, than the GOP deserves to fail. Jump, tuck and roll, just like in the movies. Dust yourself off and help found a conservative party that takes good governance seriously. It will be fun.

[lobear00]

Republican­s/Conserva­tives don't know how to think! They are so wrapped up with their corporate daddies, that they have turned on the american people. The republican­s/conserva­tives came up with the term "Activist judges" only to fool the american people into believing in such a thing that doesn't exist,

Representatives turning against the American People! Republican and some Democratic Representatives turning against the interest of the American People, for their Corporate Daddies.

[Freesia2]

Ms. Nelson, I've read your blogs before. You seem sincere and you write well, so I don't mean to insult you. But I also don't feel like there's any obligation any more to soft peddle what's going on with the GOP. They've crossed the line into downright indecency.

"you cannot build a national party or real coalitions with anger and division." Really? Because that's exactly what the Republicans have been doing for the past 30 something years. It's just escalated is all. Despersation has driven them into high gear. But what you're seeing is what was always there. Oh there were a few more true conservatives, some real gentlemen mingled in, but for the most part even those gentlemen were - sorry about this - totally comfortable with the Southern Strategy, so how genteel were they actually?.

What they're doing isn't new. It's just louder. And sloppier. And just as it always was, it's wrong.

As an Independent I agree, there is a danger of losing the 2 party system. But I'd rather go with just one til another comes along to take the GOP's place. One that doesn't slam and ram and suddenly insult our very history as a country by announcing that it's white people who are oppressed.

They're a mess. You're right. But they chose to be. And they chose it a long time ago.

[NorVaGal]

Well said, Freesia. The GOP decided long ago that the culture wars were their ticket to power. And, anyone who didn't look like them, act like them, or hate like they hate are outsiders and must be minimalized at the minimum or totally destroyed at the maximum. They forgot that hate begets hate, and they are now reaping the festering spoils of what they have sown. Our country is tired of division and greed. So is the rest of the world.

[Freesia2]

That's true. They're reaping what they've sown. There were a lot of republicans who perhaps didn't sew it personally, but they did however stand by and watch and I don't know but that that's actually worse. A line from the play the Little Foxes - "There are the people who eat the earth. And then there are the people who stand around and watch them do it." That would be the GOP in all it's varied membership. The eaters and the watchers.

Some people say that until the Republicans disavow themselves of Bush and Cheney they can't heal. There's truth to that. But Bush and Cheney were actually the result of the long decline of their party, not the cause. They just took it further than anyone dreamed. Wagging the dog to start a war and torture and.....well you know the list of their offenses. But as they go through their death rattle now, they're still palin' around with Cheney and they've taken the gloves off racism and they're trying to "eat the earth" in a virtual feeding frenzy.

But the world, as you say, is tired of it all. So is the country. And God knows I am.