Give Sotomayor credit, she listened to that barrage of bullsh*t and didn't blink once. She's clearly smart enough to know that these guys are praying for a "meltdown", and smart enough to know now to give them one. But you know deep down inside, she's thinkin' "Mother****** say what?!? Oh, I'm bout' to call some goons to meet this fool in the parking lot!!!" Seriously, peep the expression on her face at the 3:36 mark.
What really pisses me off is that the GOP is playing right into the very sort of silly racial politricks that they should know better than. If you want to see a semi-reasonable method of debating the merits of Sotomayor's nomination, peep how Senator Sam Brownback handles his.
Yes, he is against Sotomayor, but his rationale (he thinks she's an "activist" judge) is reasonable and doesn't dip low into the well of racial politricks. This is how you debate, not by Channelling Your Inner Bull Connor.
All things considered, Day One wasn't too bad, but today, when "cross examination" starts, things might could get a little ugly. Stay tuned.
Question: Does Jeff Sessions have a point, or is he merely dredging the bottom of the barrel?
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Sessions got denied a position because he's said racist things. I guess he thinks this is his payback.
Anybody with half a brain knows how the "scales of justice" have played out for people of color in this country for oh, 400 years or so. All that guilt-in-the-form-of-denial apparently makes guys like Sessions want to tilt the scales by publicly piling up dirt on the minority's side of the scale.
He's doing that for his constituency so I can't blame him- but imagine what the tens of millions of Latinos and people of color in this country feel as they watch yet another white guy preaching down to Soto Mayor from the moral high ground of racial equity.
The least he could do is pronounce Mayor "MAH-yor" correctly.
I've been going off on Sessions on Twitter for the past two days. Dude's a clown.
Sotomayor is a G. They went back and forth today and I think she's did her thing.
When talking about the GOP, they're not scraping the bottom of the barrel.
They're lower than the barrel, and it's rapidly losing its comedic factor to me.
Brownback acts like a Senator. That was v. nice to see.
SMH @ Senator Sessions. What is he talking about not using experience to influence rulings? Do we live in a vacuum? He sounds like such an idiot and I'm sorry but Brownback is just as full of it. He doesn't want her confirmed because she has an "activist" judicial philosophy versus a strict constructionist one? Ok so because Sotomayor suggests that having empathy and experience plays a part in making judicial decisions you think she is going to (and has in the past) ignored the letter of the law to interpret it in ways the legislature never meant? BS. If she has... so has every other member of the judicial branch of the goverment ever. (not to mention the other 2 branches...theyre another story)
@ Ezra:
You mean he isn't!?
(I haven't been watching.)
What a tool. There's no way he could not be doing that on purpose.
(Who was it, again, who suggested that people like Sotomayor ought to officially change the pronounciation of their names to fit English norms? If it was him, go fig.)
I have a new shero, Judge Sotomayor. I would have jumped over those desk a couple of times to get to some of those Senators! The patience!!!
Federalist Society has an interesting angle...
Conservatives in america have an abhorrence to postmodern views on things. So we have to sit through this dog and pony show where we pretend that judges would never say things like "we create policy" or talk about the "indeterminance of law" or imply that judges can't in reality be impartial.
You have to work with the system you're given. And the system is degraded discourse on legal theory.
Actually i take that back. It's not merely the fact that conservatives aren't into relativist and post modern views (although that's a good chunk of it) it's also that the strategy to get past confirmation hearings when you face opposition is to talk less about ideology (which is a factor in every decision) and all about rule of law.
Sessions suffers from a problem that afflicts some (many) white males. Sessions does not recognize that he has a race and a sex, therefore he has never analyzed how that race/sex may impact his views. Sessions views his white man status as neutral. Therefore, all others are in some way tainted. In his mind, the thinking of others are prejudiced or slanted because they are not in the neutral or rational positions.
In truth, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III a white man of privilege from Alabama has been shaped by his upbringing, race, and sex. He simply does not recognize it. Thankfully, the Republican controlled judiciary committee did in 1986 when they rejected his life time appointment to the U.S. District Court.
In short, Sessions is an ignorant hater.
And more from Volokh, where the discussion is pure intelligence... it's the sort of place everyone should try and get their minds around, if they care about the law and our justice system.
So, everyone who thought that wise latina comment was right... how's it feel to be abandoned by the woman who said it?
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