Do we all share in the belief that the Supreme Court nomination hearings insult our intelligence? We know that if Sonia Sotomayor had been the appointment of a Republican President this attack on her capabilities and prejudices would have come from the left and not the right.
While we have a hard time believing that the Republican party would ever endorse such a woman, let's suspend our disbelief for a moment. If President Bush had presented Judge Sotomayor before Congress, Senator Schumer would not have been so generous in his assessment, but would have been on the attack like Senator Kyl.
It is all politics and gamesmanship. When Senator Graham compares the responses of Judge Sotomayor to those given at an earlier hearing by one of the most conservative Justices now sitting, it is no surprise. The hearings are a well rehearsed charade. The prosecutors pontificate and point. The defenders praise and pander. The nominee deflects and defuses.
It is a dance for no true purpose. We will welcome Judge Sotomayor onto the court in the next few days and find out in the future where her beliefs will take her and the court. For this week we will all listen to sound and fury signifying nothing.
6 comments:
The real difference between judges is the facts that each one considers important or non-important. The choice is a matter of values. The GOP looks at form much more than substance; the liberal takes the opposite view in order to get a more just society that all can participate in. Sotomayor understands this but has not been asked this most telling of questions.
I think this is the "fact- sensitive", "empathetic", "feely" type of decision making that the Republicans seem to be railing about.
...which they (the Republicans) happen to have no problem with as long as the 'empathy' is for the powerful and the privileged.
It is the "do as I say not as I do" philosophy
The GOP questions are not for Sotomayor, but are for their constituents. And, perhaps, her bias is better than white males who think that they are the arbiters of what is correct for our society, and yet, may be out of touch with the "common man" and woman.
Frank Rich has a scathing indictment of the GOP class of '94 that led the Republican attack on Sotomayor. It is well worth the read in today's NY Times.
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