I don't know if many GOoP senators in their rat bag of southern white male doofuses will openly attack her intelligence or qualifications. That will be the job of the Noise Machine and corporate press (Head lice: "Do you agree with Rushbo that the judge is an unqualified dummy, Mr Professional Wingnut Commenter X?" Wingnut X: "Yes, I do!")
The senate GOoPer boys will be screaming "you suppport affirmytive acshun! affirmytive acshun!" as their main line of attack, as it's not a popular policy. And will declare she's "out of the mainstream". No conservative, however radical an extremist (like the RATS), is EVER outside the mainstream, of course.
What will the Maine Ladies do? The idiot Ben Nelson will likely oppose her.
Posted by euzoius at May 26, 2009 09:10 AMBoth Maine Ladies voted for Sotomayer when she was nominated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. apparently.
Rushbo will whip his drooling hateheads into a frenzy on this and demand a NO WAY IN HELL vote, and the Rump Repubs usually have to do what Rushbo and his ship of fools demand.
So this will be brutal.
Posted by euzoius at May 26, 2009 09:25 AMIt seems the real question is not if, but when Sotomayor will be confirmed, and how long and bruising is the GOP willing to make the nomination. And will it be more bruising to themselves rather than the candidate or the Administration?
If the pugs drag this out beyond the August recess, they're idiots.
Posted by idiosynchronic at May 26, 2009 09:39 AMt seems the real question is not if, but when Sotomayor will be confirmed, and how long and bruising is the GOP willing to make the nomination. And will it be more bruising to themselves rather than the candidate or the Administration?
If the pugs drag this out beyond the August recess, they're idiots.
Posted by idiosynchronic at May 26, 2009 09:41 AMI am optomistic that less than proving brutal, the confirmation process will show how completely the pukes lack support.No one, except for a handful of troll losers, and religous fanatics, appears to want to be associated with the party.
And this is a real no win for the right as they smear both a woman and and a Hispanic.
But I agree b nelson won't be able to resist making an even bigger asshole of himself...
Posted by headxray at May 26, 2009 09:46 AMFrom Obama's point of view I think the key is what was said on SCOTUSblog:
Even more important, Republicans cannot afford to find themselves in the position of implicitly opposing Judge Sotomayor. To Hispanics, the nomination would be an absolutely historic landmark. It really is impossible to overstate its significance. The achievement of a lifetime appointment at the absolute highest levels of the government is a profound event for that community, which in turn is a vital electoral group now and in the future.
Really, unless something despicable is uncovered... she's a lock. Please, let the repuli-KKKons white male club go bannanas... I want them to keep digging that hole.
I'm really waiting for the look on Kyl's face... his grin was so arrogant and lapped up everything Roberts and Alito had to say. To see him disturbed will bring me a small amount of pleasure.
Posted by Seven of Six at May 26, 2009 10:03 AMIf Repubs are successful in blocking this nomination, their hispanic votes in the next election are evaporated. I think some of the Repubs are smart enough to realize this. Of course, they will scream and holler and try to dimonize the nominee hoping she will withdraw.
Posted by suresh at May 26, 2009 10:24 AMOf course, the big question is---what will Carolyn Kay say about this?
How about: "Like George Bush, Obama has failed to nominate the most liberal candidate in America to the Supreme Court. Yet when Obama does precisely the same thing as Bush, Obamabots don't raise a peep of objection!", etc, etc.
Posted by euzoius at May 26, 2009 11:30 AM"she's gruff and impersonal"
And the last time this was a problem for an alpha dog male lead'r was....er....um....when? Like when the Repubs ran an (admitted) hothead ragaholic white male for Prez and not a peep was raised? When something's an acceptable (or positive!) trait for a male but a negative for a woman, I think you can see what territory you're in.
"same ideological position as Justice Souter".
Oh, great. They get crazed wingnut extremists like Roberts and Alito, we get another Souter.....hope she's better than that!
Posted by euzoius at May 26, 2009 11:41 AMFirst, the Republican'ts are demonstrating their multiple personality disorder on this one. On the one hand, a few of them understand that this nomination will go through, and that any attempt to smear her will hurt with the hispanic and women's vote that they hope to win back. On the other hand, the majority of Republicans just can't help it -- they are already reflexively attacking her on anything and everything.
What's especially hilarious is the "too dumb" charge. Note they also recently tried this, with no success, against Obama. The fact that this comes from the party that worships Reagan and W, two C- students, makes the charge even more absurd.
On the other hand her track record isn't that impressive. She consistently sides with prosecutors in close cases -- perhaps because she herself was a prosecutor -- and has no record on abortion rights and little record on limits of executive power. She's also a practicing Catholic without children -- not what I would consider an ideal life experience for someone who will have to judge abortion cases. Finally, while hispanics and women are underrepresented on the court, Catholics are overrepresented -- she'd be the 6th Catholic. What's up with that?
Interesting about how many Catholics are on the court. Still, I consider Catholics to be pretty reasonable compared to fundie Christians. Of course, having even one Jew on the court means Jews are over-represented and there are currently 2. As a Jew, I don't mind though.
Thanks for posting the scotusblog link. I read over the cases and she certainly seems pretty moderate and unscary for conservatives.
I'm sure this quote by her will get the same attention from the righties as the quote about making policy:
Rejecting what she regarded as the majority’s failure to grapple with the plain text of the statute, she emphasized that “[t]he duty of a judge is to follow the law, not to question its plain terms. I do not believe that Congress wishes us to disregard the plain language of any statute or to invent exceptions to the statutes it has created. . . . But even if Congress had doubts about the wisdom of subjecting felony disenfranchisement laws to the results test of § 2, I trust that Congress would prefer to make any needed changes itself, rather than have courts do so for it.”
Posted by CG at May 26, 2009 01:02 PMWatching the good ole boyz ruling class club go ballistic is certainly going to be exciting...so far haven't heard what her "empathy" rating is from the repuke side of the aisle...but all early commentary and signs point to her most likely being highly rated on the Hannity-Limbaugh- Newt scale of being a firmly activist social engineer in a matter of hours.
Yes,let's watch the hyprocrits whine their way through this process with all their give me the vapors fauxrage galore and marginalize themselves even further.
Posted by emal at May 26, 2009 01:23 PMemal-
i agree. this could be fun...
Posted by Turkana at May 26, 2009 01:38 PMI would have preferred Chief Justice Sears from Georgia, now that would have been fun. I'll bet that she gets more support from our side than Alito received from yours. I'd move that even further and say she gets more of our support than Roberts got from yours. Make no mistake, this is a political pick. Calculated even, she isn't the "best" pick for this position. She is a qualified pick, just like Bork was, just like Thomas was, just like Ginsberg was. We'll have to remember the president's usage of the word "best" here when he has another nominee.
Congrats to the future Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor! She will soon be bringing the coffee for the other Justices.
Posted by peter at May 26, 2009 02:21 PMShe will soon be bringing the coffee for the other Justices.
Really? And why would that be?
Posted by Twinky P* at May 26, 2009 02:36 PMTradition...the most recently installed justice brings/serves the coffee. Sam will be thankful.
Posted by peter at May 26, 2009 02:54 PMPoor peter, did I ruin your elaborately planned "racist, misogynist" quadruple entendre? You were hoping for screams of outrage just so you could pop up with "tradition," right? Oh well, at least you can keep up the pretense until someone else comes along, eh? Carolyn might just bite. After all, you've been planning this one for months, it'd be a shame for it to go to waste.
Posted by Twinky P* at May 26, 2009 03:08 PMRuined nothing twinky. I must be ruining your 'hopes' here by accepting her future swearing in. Sorry folks, shame y'all just couldn't treat Estrada likewise.
Did you catch Sen. Claire McCaskill this morning? What a waste of a good senate seat.
Posted by peter at May 26, 2009 03:19 PMTradition...the most recently installed justice brings/serves the coffee.
Didn't you know Twinky... she even picks the beans!
Posted by Seven of Six at May 26, 2009 03:20 PMWell TwinkyP even though you busted up his lil game...I say most likely he's even more proud of the fact he didn't call her Maria ...like some of his racist wingnut pals just assumedd and did. These pugs are predictably pathetic and yes we've got twisted torture justifier in chief Yoo screaming the empathy card...it doesn't get more ridiculous than this does it.
Posted by emal at May 26, 2009 03:55 PM"AUL notes that Sotomayor upheld a ban on federal funds going to abortion providers overseas. "The Supreme Court has made clear that the government is free to favor the antiabortion position over the pro-choice position, and can do so with public funds," Sotomayor wrote in the decision. She has also ruled in favor of antiabortion protesters who sued West Hartford, Conn., claiming that police there used excessive force against them at a demonstration." usnews.com
Americans United for Life gave her the best ratings of all those on President Obama's short list.
Posted by peter at May 26, 2009 04:21 PMit doesn't get more ridiculous than this does it.
Yeah, it's going to be fun watching the wingnuts push the Latino vote more solidly toward Dems. They just can't help themselves!
Posted by Twinky P* at May 26, 2009 04:45 PMI'm very disappointed that Obama nominated an anti-choice candidate. Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and for Obama to choose a candidate that could overturn this is insane.
In Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush,[43] Sotomayor upheld the Bush administration's implementation of the Mexico City Policy which requires foreign organizations receiving U.S. funds to "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations". Sotomayor held that the policy did not constitute a violation of equal protection, as the government "is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position, and can do so with public funds".[44]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor
Posted by Steve at May 26, 2009 05:44 PM"Judge Richard C. Wesley, a George W. Bush appointee to the Second Circuit, said "Sonia is an outstanding colleague with a keen legal mind. She brings a wealth of knowledge and hard work to all her endeavors on our court. It is both a pleasure and an honor to serve with her.""
Appointed by a Bush, admired by Bush appointees. Yep, it's going to be fun folks watching y'all support a pro-lifer. He's done it again!
Posted by peter at May 26, 2009 05:52 PMAppointed by a Bush, admired by Bush appointees.
Yoo hates her... so, fuck Yoo and fuck Yoo too!
Keep trying petie!
Posted by Seven of Six at May 26, 2009 06:26 PMIn Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush,[43] Sotomayor upheld the Bush administration's...
Heehee! This is the third cut and paste I've seen in lefty comments in as many minutes! Who says you shitheads can't organize, huh? So what you're saying is that she was wrong in saying the US can spend its aid money any way it wants to? What happened to USA! USA!?
And the protester thingy? So you don't think anti-abortion protesters should seek justice if they believe they were brutalized by the cops? Mmmkay.
Two tangentially-related-to-abortion opinions, and she's pro-life? Even the nuttiest of your nut sites presenting this cut and paste say that her position on abortion is unknown.
And some rabid anti-choice site rates her highest among Obama's picks? What'd she get? D+ while the rest got Ds? And her colleagues like her. Well, that's a good thing, innit? Means she'll be able to work with the other justices, right? So, tell me. Your point is...?
Posted by Twinky P* at May 26, 2009 06:33 PMI'm sorry Seven, I don't fit into your script. You guys seem to very nepotistic. Can't you work off more neutral sites.
[smile]
What a great president y'all elected! You assumed way too much.
Posted by peter at May 26, 2009 06:34 PMWhat a great president y'all elected! You assumed way too much.
I'm perfectly happy with the Sotomayor pick... it paints the repukes in a corner. Don't vote for her... lose the Hispanic vote forever. That's a lot of votes in the Southwest shitbird. Vote for her... piss off your base... limburger, "the shooter" cheney, and turdblossom... I'm always happy when Obama makes it a no win situation for the repukes!
Here Yoo go! From the American Enterprise Institute. BTW, that's where TPM got it from... LOL!
Posted by Seven of Six at May 26, 2009 08:14 PM