SUPREME COURT Right-Wing Hate Rears Its Ugly Head The radical right wing has launched a vicious campaign of racist and sexist attacks against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's selection to replace the retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor's "compelling life story" involves a brilliant legal career after being raised in a South Bronx public housing project by parents who moved from Puerto Rico. Sotomayor graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude, edited the Yale Law Journal, then served as a "fearless and effective" New York City prosecutor and corporate lawyer before being appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush in 1992. "Since joining the Second Circuit in 1998, Sotomayor has authored over 150 opinions," only three of which have been overturned by the Supreme Court's conservative majority. During her time as an appeals judge, "her influence has grown significantly." Public reaction to the nomination of the first Latina and third woman to the nation's highest court is "decidedly more positive than negative." Former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon remarked, "If Republicans make a big deal of opposing Sotomayor, we will be hurling ourselves off a cliff." However, "the same right-wing extremists who drove the country into the ground," Salon's Glenn Greenwald writes, "continue to attack Sonia Sotomayor with blatant and ugly stereotypes." Right-wing pundit Pat Buchanan called Sotomayor an "affirmative action candidate," and Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes claimed she "has benefited from affirmative action over the years tremendously." As hate-radio extremist Glenn Beck described the nomination: "Hey, Hispanic chick lady! You're empathetic ... you're in!"
'WISE LATINA WOMAN': "[L]ess than 24 hours after President Obama's nomination of Sotomayor," right-wing hate merchants seized on a 2001 speech about her Latina heritage and the courts, calling her "a racist" and a "bigot." In a 2001 speech before the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal's annual symposium, Sotomayor argued that judges' gender and race can influence their decisions on gender and race discrimination cases, saying she "would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." However, she cautioned she owes the parties who appear before her "constant and complete vigilance in checking [her] assumptions, presumptions and perspectives." Pulling out the "wise Latina woman" phrase, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attacked Sotomayor on his Twitter feed as a "Latina woman racist." "Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist," hate-radio host Rush Limbaugh complained, "and now he's appointed one...to the U.S. Supreme Court." Former Republican House member and anti-immigration extremist Tom Tancredo agreed that Sotomayor "appears to be a racist" and called La Raza the "Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses." Curt Levey, executive director of Committee for Justice, "a conservative legal group active in judicial nominations," said that "I wonder whether she knows the difference" between being a Puerto Rican advocate -- Sotomayor served on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in the 1980s -- and being a judge. Some of the racist attacks on Sotomayor are simply absurd. Mark Krikorian of the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies blogged on the National Review's Corner about his outrage over people "[d]eferring" to Sotomayor over the "unnatural pronunciation" of her own name.
'SORT OF A SCHOOLMARM': Right-wing extremists have also launched vicious attacks on her intelligence, temperament, and demeanor. Karl Rove, President Bush's "political brain," has led the sexist slurs, claiming that Sotomayor is "not necessarily" smart and has acted "like sort of a schoolmarm" on the Second Circuit. "I'm not really certain how intellectually strong she would be," he opined on Fox News. In the Wall Street Journal, Rove argued she is one of those judges selected "for their readiness to discard the rule of law whenever emotion moves them." Citing anonymous attacks promoted by the New Republic, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes said that Sotomayor was "not the smartest." The New York Times writes that "to detractors, Judge Sotomayor's sharp-tongued and occasionally combative manner -- some lawyers have described her as 'difficult' and 'nasty' -- raises questions about her judicial temperament and willingness to listen." But a fellow Second Circuit judge, Guido Calabresi, "kept track of the questions posed by Judge Sotomayor and other members of the 12-member court" and found that her "behavior was identical." "Some lawyers just don't like to be questioned by a woman," Judge Calabresi added. "It was sexist, plain and simple."
REPUBLICAN SENATORS STEP BACK: Although Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that Sotomayor may be subject to the "undue influence" of her race and gender, Republican senators have attempted to distance themselves from the hatred. Even Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), who announced he would vote against Sotomayor's nomination, said, "I think that we should be judging people not on race and gender, or background or ethnicity or a very compelling story." Some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will conduct hearings on Sotomayor's nomination this summer, have directly denounced the worst invective. Responding to the attacks on Sotomayor calling her "racist," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told NPR's "All Things Considered," "I think it's terrible. This is not the kind of tone that any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent." "I don't agree with" the "racist" smear, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said recently. "If there are no otherwise disqualifying matters here it appears to me she will probably be confirmed," Hatch told CNN Radio yesterday. 
MEDIA -- FOX NEWS EMBRACES RIGHT-WING THEORY THAT OBAMA IS FORCING GOP-OWNED CAR DEALERSHIPS TO CLOSE: Citing a handful of right-wing bloggers Wednesday afternoon, the Washington Examiner reported ominously, "Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted Chrysler dealers who contributed to Republicans" for closure. Not to be outdone, Fox and Friends hosted conservative blogger Michelle Malkin yesterday morning to play up the conspiracy theory. "Believe me Steve, over the last several years, we've all documented the Obama-Chicago-gangland tactics that certainly make this a possibility," Malkin said. Malkin's speculative hysterics were apparently enough to pique the interest of Fox News White House correspondent Major Garrett. As he's done with other right-wing conspiracy theories, he asked the White House for its response to the charges. "There is some concern in the blogosphere that of the Chrysler dealerships being closed, a disproportionate number appear to be in which the operators contributed to Republicans." As Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained to Garrett, it is Chrysler -- not the federal government -- that is in charge of selecting which dealerships will be closed. Further, as Nate Silver explained in a post that was published just hours after the Examiner's initial report yesterday, "There is just one problem with this theory. Nobody has bothered to look up data for the control group: the list of dealerships which aren't being closed." Silver explained, "It turns out that all car dealers are, in fact, overwhelmingly more likely to donate to Republicans than to Democrats -- not just those who are having their doors closed." In all, Silver found that "88 percent of the contributions from car dealers went to Republican candidates and just 12 percent to Democratic candidates," while, the list of Chrysler dealerships being closed "gave 92 percent of their money to Republicans -- not really a significant difference." | 
In a speech to the Atlantic Council yesterday, National Security Advisor Gen. Jim Jones rebutted Vice President Cheney's assertion that the country less safe under President Obama. He said that the current administration has rejected "the false choice between our security and our ideals" and the United States "is not only safe but it will be more secure...because of the president's leadership." Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is "circulating the outlines of sweeping health-care legislation that would require every American to have insurance and would mandate that employers contribute to workers' coverage." The proposal, which includes a separate public option, also "calls for opening Medicaid to those whose incomes are 500 percent of the federal poverty level, or $110,250 a year for a family of four." On a conference call with Organizing for America volunteers yesterday, President Obama said it's now or never for health care reform. "If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done," Obama said, urging callers to "work in your communities" to build support for reform. "[W]e've got to get it done this year," Obama repeated. Despite having ready access to the White House, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) sent in a suggestion to the White House website's online suggestion box that currently has more votes -- 599 -- than any other idea. Boehner called on the White House "to back a mandatory 72-hour review period before Congress votes on any major spending bill."
The Obama administration asked a federal appeals court yesterday "to halt the release of disturbing images of detainee abuse, saying the photos could incite violence in Pakistan as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan." The court papers "cite two partially secret statements from two top U.S. generals, David Petraeus and Ray Odierno. Such arguments failed to sway the court in the past." "The White House scrambled yesterday to assuage worries from liberal groups about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's scant record on abortion rights." Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Obama never asked her about her view of abortion rights, but that he was "very comfortable with her interpretation of the Constitution being similar to that of his," an indication that she agrees with the basis of Roe v. Wade. The Obama administration "is aiming to use the bankruptcy process to strip" Chrysler and General Motors of their debts and reconstitute them as "more viable global competitors." Chrysler is "pushing to create a new company in bankruptcy" while GM's bankruptcy plan "aims to sell off the automaker's productive assets to a new revived GM." Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "issued a temporary order yesterday governing development in 'roadless' areas of national forests, requiring all new projects to be approved by him personally." The order is not a ban and officials said that it is "unclear whether projects with a strictly commercial aim, such as logging or mining, will be allowed." And finally: "American Idol" winner and Arkansas native Kris Allen has teamed up with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for a duet. In a taping for his show set to air on Saturday, Huckabee backs up Allen on bass for "Yesterday" by The Beatles. "Maybe someday I could be the Governor of Arkansas, right?" asks Allen during the appearance. "It's a great gig," replies Huckabee. "It really is." |
| |
I think Republicans need to take [Sotomayor] on in the appropriate fashion, which is about her judicial philosophy, her record on the court, her writings and her statements."
-- Karl Rove, 5/28/09 on Fox News
VERSUS
"[Sotomayor is] sort of a schoolmarm."
-- Rove, 5/26/09 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.