Do Republicans really have a dilemma in opposing Sotomayer?
That is the premise of this post by Adam Nagourney at the NY Times Caucus Blog. He quotes Republicans on both sides of the issue, but they have a problem only if the Democrats make a blatant appeal to racism.
As long as Republicans stand on principal and question her about her own racist views they should not have any repercussions because Hispanics should be for fairness for everyone too, right? Her statements about the superiority of Hispanic women to white males in decision making in some circumstances is clearly racist regardless of what context Democrats try to slip it into. When you put that with her decision to deny civil rights to a white firefighter in a recent case, it becomes just more evidence that she has a problem being fair with white men.
I would think that fair mined Democrats should have a problem with that too, if there are any out there.
One thing should be clear. It is not racist to question a judge about her decisions and her statements to the public. If the Democrats try to make that case they will be going back to the politics of fraud that has characterized many of their campaigns in recent years.
As long as Republicans stand on principal and question her about her own racist views they should not have any repercussions because Hispanics should be for fairness for everyone too, right? Her statements about the superiority of Hispanic women to white males in decision making in some circumstances is clearly racist regardless of what context Democrats try to slip it into. When you put that with her decision to deny civil rights to a white firefighter in a recent case, it becomes just more evidence that she has a problem being fair with white men.
I would think that fair mined Democrats should have a problem with that too, if there are any out there.
One thing should be clear. It is not racist to question a judge about her decisions and her statements to the public. If the Democrats try to make that case they will be going back to the politics of fraud that has characterized many of their campaigns in recent years.
I don't think that is the issue... the issue is women and Latino voters in 2010 and 2012 and the 7 Republicans who voted for her in 1998 and would have to vote her down now, even though she will still easily get the votes she needs unless the GOP can filibusterer... which seems to be a a difficult task when you break the numbers down especially with the defection of Sen Arlen Spector who also voted for her in 1998.
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