Republicans: Attack this woman at your peril

[babylonsister]

Republicans: Attack this woman at your peril

The White House prepares for a fight aides think they can win over Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination.

By Mike Madden

Reuters/Larry Downing

Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor speaks after President Obama announced her as his nominee to the Supreme Court Tuesday.


May 26, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- The new face of evil, if the GOP decides it wants all-out war over the future of the Supreme Court, is a 54-year-old Puerto Rican judge from the South Bronx with two Ivy League degrees and a biography that reads like the textbook definition of the American dream. Even Jesse Helms voted to confirm her when she was first put on the federal bench -- by George H.W. Bush. Oh, and for good measure, she also saved baseball. And people wonder why it's hard being a Republican these days?

By nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court Tuesday, President Obama didn't make life any easier for his political opponents. Sotomayor would be the first Latin justice, the third woman on the court, the only sitting justice with any experience as a trial judge (Justice David Souter, whom she would replace, has that distinction now). Though conservatives are already trying to paint her as a radical liberal who's only one step away from hurling Molotov cocktails at the Constitution, based heavily on an out-of-context YouTube clip, most observers say she's far more moderate. The White House, previewing the strategy for getting Sotomayor confirmed, tried to dismiss the idea that they were girding for battle. "I hesitate to use the term 'war room,' because we're not expecting a war," a senior administration official said Tuesday.

But no Democrat in town would really be complaining if the GOP started one; Sotomayor won't be easy to demonize. Introduced to a heroine's welcome by Obama in the East Room of the White House Tuesday morning, she came across as both humble and confident, a tough balance to strike. (Vice President Biden, who knows a little bit about public speaking pitfalls, later congratulated her, "Piece of cake.") "Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich," she said after Obama introduced her in the East Room of the White House. "It is a daunting feeling to be here. Eleven years ago, during my confirmation process for appointment to the 2nd Circuit, I was given a private tour of the White House. It was an overwhelming experience for a kid from the South Bronx. Yet never in my wildest childhood imaginings did I ever envision that moment, let alone did I ever dream that I would live this moment."

Sotomayor does seem to fit what Obama described as a key criterion for the pick -- a wealth of experience with how the law affects people. She worked as a prosecutor in Manhattan after graduating from Yale law school, then as a corporate litigator in the mid-1980s -- not exactly a sign of a radical bent. In 1992, named to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, she was the youngest judge in the court. She heard more than 400 cases before former President Clinton tapped her for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in 1998. Expect to hear as much about her early childhood in the South Bronx, though, including her father's death when Sotomayor was 9, her youthful love of Nancy Drew and her diagnosis as a young girl with Type I diabetes. Those human elements are what aides are hoping will make it harder for critics to even begin to get traction if they try to chip away at her résumé.

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/26/sotomayor/

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Dummies on the right are circling the wagons prior to shooting themselves.

This is going to be fun to watch.

[Old School Liberal]

2. She's probably a shoe-in

Unless the Republicans intend to be deliberately obstructive, her relative centrism should be enough to make them thankful that a more extreme candidate wasn't proposed.

[girl gone mad]

3. I don't think Republicans will attack her.

I think they like her.

[customerserviceguy]

5. They probably don't want to

but the right wing blogosphere will not afford them that luxury. I expect an attack on her as vicious as any this nation has ever seen for the Supreme Court.

We've not had a Supreme Court nomination by a Democratic President for many years now. The last time it occurred, there really was no effective Internet. Now, the vast majority of people who are politically active (or at least concerned) have it, and they're going after the hearts and minds of those who are indifferent. Fear is the leading tactic of the wingnuts, we saw that this last election. But in that case, there was a choice that was worse, no matter what you "didn't know about this Obama guy." In this case, there's no alternative choice that looks like the greater of two evils.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. It's been their first reaction to everything Obama's done.

It's habit now.

[AlinPA]

7. I'm sure republicans love her; a woman, Hispanic, from NY, nominated by Obama.....

We are going to see an all out war against her by Limbaugh, Savage, Beck, Coulter, Ingraham and the party leadership, Steele, McConnell, Gingrich, Sessions.

[Kahuna]

4. I'm all giddy in anticipation...

:popcorn:

[Libertyfirst]

8. Oh, I do hope the Republicans attach her in every slimly, miserable way they

can.





She will make an outstanding justice and a majority of Americans realize. It they go after her big time maybe they can get an even smaller percentage of the female and Latin voters than they did last election.