This is really sad. With all these people out there damaging her reputation, if she, or anyone, turns down the offer/honor, I wouldn't blame them.
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200905080032?f=h_top Jamison Foser
Where does Sonia Sotomayor go to get her reputation back?
May 08, 2009 6:14 pm ET
With last week's news that President Obama will soon get to choose a Supreme Court nominee, media immediately began speculating about who he would choose. And, just as quickly, some media started trying to undermine potential selections. (Back when Democrats were expressing skepticism about President Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the high court, the media chastised them for "pre-judging" the nomination. Now the media itself is rushing to judge nominees before they are even nominees. What a difference a few years make.)
Second Circuit Court of Appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor has been the subject of the harshest criticism, led by New Republic writer Jeffrey Rosen. Rosen took a brief glance at Sotomayor's rulings, talked to a few people who don't like her, and typed up their anonymous complaints. Sound like an overly harsh assessment of Rosen's research? It isn't. In fact, that's pretty much how Rosen himself describes his research:
I haven't read enough of Sotomayor's opinions to have a confident sense of them, nor have I talked to enough of Sotomayor's detractors and supporters, to get a fully balanced picture of her strengths.
Of course, that didn't stop Rosen from using anonymous quotes from the few people he did talk to in order to portray Sotomayor as too tempermental, too vain, and too stupid to serve on the Supreme Court.
Well, to be fair, Rosen's article wasn't based entirely on anonymous comments. He quoted 2nd Circuit judge Jose Cabranes by name. Unfortunately, he cropped Cabranes' comment to make it appear he was criticizing Sotomayor's intelligence. That's pretty bad. What's worse is that Cabranes was actually praising Sotomayor's intelligence.
The New Yorker's Amy Davidson caught Rosen's quote-cropping and posted the full quote on May 5, but The New Republic hasn't corrected the falsehood, and Rosen hasn't commented on it -- though he has responded to other criticism.
snip//
Dumb. Lazy. Temperamental. It's enough to make you wonder how she made it from the South Bronx to Princeton, Yale, and a federal judgeship. And remember: She didn't get there the George W. Bush way. You know many lazy, stupid people who win Princeton's highest academic prize?
Worst of all, there's no reason to think that the treatment Sonia Sotomayor received from the media over the past week will stop with her. The coverage of Sotomayor has clearly been built at least in part on gender and racial stereotypes, so we can probably expect similar coverage of other women and minorities who are mentioned as possible nominees.Some in the media have even managed to convince themselves that white men are being unfairly denied consideration for the Supreme Court opening. Halperin sniffed that "White Men Need Not Apply." Chris Matthews described nominating Sotomayor as the "usual cookie cutter" approach. (
Even though 96 percent of Supreme Court justices have been white men, Chris Matthews thinks the daughter of Puerto Rican parents is the "cookie cutter" choice. Right.) Lou Dobbs suggests that if Obama considers only women for Justice David Souter's seat, it would mean "the death of meritocracy on the court." (Again: 96 percent of justices have been white men. When, exactly, was this "meritocracy"?) Pat Buchanan insists "working class whites" are "the ones discriminated most today."
Just think what they're going to say if President Obama actually does nominate a woman or a minority.
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