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One way to interpret the appearance of some genuine American fringe types on cable news, dancing around the facts as fast as they can to besmirch the reputation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is that they are representatives of the only ones doing so. Their pathetic performance looks for all the world like 2nd graders trying to get spit wads attached to the chalk board, with inadequate aim, and without sufficient substance.
How Many Degrees Does It Take? Nevada’s own right wing Senator John Ensign took his shot. He wasn’t sure Sotomayor had the “right intellect.” [LV Sun] Could it be that Senator Ensign isn’t impressed by those who win scholarships to Princeton, graduate second in the class, are admitted to the Yale School of Law, and edit the Yale Law Journal? This “wad” splattered, leaving the distinct impression in its wake that Senator Ensign isn’t inclined to bestow all that much respect to educated women. [DB] Perhaps not the impression he’d intended? At any rate, his plastic straw empty, Ensign resumed his place at the back of the class and hasn’t been heard from since. At least he didn’t disparage his former employer by opining that, “I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools.” [TP]
“Reverse Discrimination” Rim Shots: Loading up with ammunition for this argument requires believing that people who have never been discriminated against must never be made to compete with those who have, especially on a level playing field. This line of argument can be best sustained by those who thought Through the Looking Glass was a non-fictional work; the White Queen being perfectly lucid and historical when she declared to Alice, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” [Sabian] Sanity notwithstanding, this is the argument tending to draw all manner of creatures from beneath the baseboards – specifically those out of the political limelight for some time.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who left Congress under clouds of ethics violation questions, hurled his invective “reverse racist” in legion with such sterling examples of tolerance and Christian charity as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. [ABC] If one’s pride is rooted in one’s race and not in one’s intrinsic value and humanity, then the Gingrich-Coulter-Limbaugh line is understandable, if more than a little pathetic. Those who see themselves superficially are hard pressed to see others in depth, and easily confuse ethnic “pride” with their own “racism.” The egregiousness is compounded when combined with xenophobia.
Tom Tancredo, defeated in his bid to be re-elected from his Colorado congressional district, has made himself available as the Voice of Xenophobic America, to berate Sotomayor for joining La Raza. The organization is, of course, the companion to the NAACP, and the American Jewish Committee, but that doesn’t stop Tancredo from unilaterally (or with the assistance of ALIPAC) decreeing that it is a “racist” organization, the “Latino KKK without the hoods or nooses.” [TPM] Frankly, the shots don’t come from further back in the room than this one. With friends like these the Republican Party doesn’t need any more enemies. Obama won the 2008 Hispanic vote by a convincing 36%, and if Tancredo keeps talking 2012’s figure could look even better…for Democrats. [Politico]
Tough Little Lady: Someone ought to remind the GOP that when then Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was assailed as a “hard woman,” “cold,” and too “businesslike” to be a viable front runner the charges backfired dramatically. All the GOP spit-balling served in that venture was to bring the subject of outdated, well worn, and thoroughly discredited, sexism into the national spotlight. Now, Heaven help them, they’re trying it again. [NYT] “The Judge is too temperamental” Oh, really? She asks tough questions? Doesn’t put up with BS? Has annoyed some defense attorneys? When might these traits shackle the nomination of, say, a Scalia on the bench? Another reminder: President Obama secured 56% of the womens’ vote in 2008, as opposed to 43% for Senator John McCain. [RU.edu] Please, GOP, toss the spit wad, put the straw back in your pocket, take your seat, and don’t even think about using this line of attack again. Those numbers could get worse…for you.
Two things appear to be going very wrong for the Republican opposition to Judge Sotomayor’s nomination. First, the class clowns got out ahead of the class leadership? Right wing magazines offered them space, and the ravenous need for filler on cable news shows provided them face time. If the Republicans were trying to move away from the impression that they are the Party of Prejudice, then it doesn’t do to let the prejudiced ones speak for you without restraint. If the leadership of the Republican Party can’t restrain its spokespersons, the Limbaughs, the Coulters, the Tancredos, et. al., then that certainly could be cited as proof that the vaunted lock-step message control of the GOP has been shattered.
Secondly, if the leadership of the GOP let the class clowns take the lead, and supported the messages being sent by the anti-intellectual, anti-tolerance, anti-immigrant, and anti-female elements, then we can assume that they are happy to assume the mantel of perpetual minority party in a nation rapidly becoming more demographically diverse. I’m waiting for the first political cartoonist to take on the task of drawing a frustrated elephant tossing spit wads into a fan, only to have his discomfort increased as they sail back at him.
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