Conservative Reaction To Sotomayor Will Frustrate Efforts To Remake GOP
It’s the dynamic that just won’t die.
Sonia Sotomayor was nominated only 24 hours ago, but a familiar pattern is already visible: The overheated conservative reaction to the pick is likely to further complicate the GOP’s efforts to shake off its image as intolerant, backward-looking, harshly obstructionist, and captive to extreme elements.
The reaction from the right is already playing into the hands of Dems, whose strategy is to make any and all GOP objections to Sotomayor about the current state of the Republican Party.
Evidence of this isn’t hard to find. In a CNN radio interview, RNC chair Michael Steele all but begged fellow Republicans to temper their rhetoric on Sotomayor. Steele said, wishfully, that the GOP “right now will avoid partisan knee-jerk judgments.”
Conservative Republicans, however, didn’t get that memo, denouncing her in harsh, sometimes racially loaded terms.
Rush Limbaugh attacked her as a “hack” and a “reverse racist.” Pat Buchanan declared her an “Affirmative Action pick.” And Senator Jim Inhofe worried that Sotomayor won’t apply the law “without undue influence” from her “race” and “gender.” There’s much more like this.
Such stuff, of course, only makes it easier for Chuck Schumer to claim that GOP opposition to Sotomayor is all about Republican extremism, and has nothing to do with her jurisprudence, as he did on MSNBC yesterday. Expect other Dems to make this point en masse today.
To be sure, the Sotomayor pick does pose some political challenges for Dems. But the big story here is what the conservative assault on Sotomayor will do to Republican efforts at renewal. Steele, to his credit, seems to grasp how bad the optics of this are for the party. But it’s not clear he’ll be able to do anything about it.
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They are Cavemen. I mean who’s ever heard of a woman with opinions and being allowed to speak in public? This is a little much for the GOP to handle.
I had to turn off Morning Joe today, he was ranting like a maniac. And Mika nodding her bobblehead. Ugh.
Judging by what I see by some of the attitudes of female anchors on cable shows on every network I am starting to believe that the GOP may end up having as much or more problems with women as they have with Hispanics if they keep pushing against Sotomayor in the way they have been ie she is dumb or has a bad temper.
SG -
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yeah, let’s see if calling her a stupid pushy b*tch works. Reminds me of the last time I ever heard a man described as “opinionated.” That’s the great thing about having Pat Buchanan around. It’s a walk down memory lane to my grandparents’ house at Thanksgiving, circa 1968.
Right wing radio and Fox have decided they are going to paint Sotomayor as a racist hammering at the point when she stated “I 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.”
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I’m surprised they are going to go this route but hey, Republicans did just get trounced in the last two cycles and it seems the same bozo’s are still running things.
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Rush began the charge with the reverse racism charges, Fox has been hammering this, Grandy and Andy right wing radio spoke of it and Joe Scarborough this morning on talk radio repeated right off the bat 4 or 5 times in the first couple minutes how she thinks a Latina judges better than a white man.
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But, I guess they have decided to paint her as a racist because of this comment. Oh well. Good luck losers.
This isn’t just isolated stuff. Check out the statements of top members of the Senate–McConnell, Hatch, Grassley. They ALL cite their concern that Sotomayor will put her “feelings” ahead of the law.
And even the guys, like Sessions, who don’t use the loaded word “feelings” make the exact same argument, that she’ll put her “personal preferences” first, so that’s why they need to look at her.
http://senatus.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/senators-react-to-sotomayor-nomination/
Basically, they’re accusing a sitting appellate court judge of lacking an understanding of the judicial system that, I’m sorry, most CHILDREN have. Really, she doesn’t know she has to follow the law and not her “feelings?”
This isn’t a throw-away, it’s their central critique. It’s the reason they say they need to see her record. Because they’re not sure if she can put the law ahead of her feelings? Again, a sitting appellate court judge who knows less about the proper role of a judge than, say, someone who watches Judge Judy. Why do they think this? Totally unclear. And, I’m sure, not tied at all to traditional stereotypes of “irrational females” and “emotional Latinos.”
What I can’t get over is that they don’t realize how dangerous it is to make unfounded allegations like this. You casually slander someone in this way and then fail to prove your case? That’s a problem, dude.
Maybe I’m missing the point of right wing radio though. Is it just to keep the base fired up or is it to bring in new people. I’m starting to think it’s to keep fresh in the mind of the base issues that keep them fired up.
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The problem with this approach is, people are now listening to right wing radio and their vileness is being brought to the forefront and being painted as mainstream Republican values.
Here is a MediaMatters rundown on some of the attacks.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Jce236HZ8
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One more thing I will say about this, it will be interesting to see what the few female Senators the GOP still has have to say about this. Greg you might want to call their offices and ask if they agree with some of the things being said about Sotomayor by their colleagues. We all know that Collins and Snowe are both on the outs with the base of the GOP. Might this end us disgusting them enough for one or both of them to bolt? I want to see if Kay Baily Hutchinson is enough of a team player to get on Tee Vee and say Sotomayor is a dummy who lets her emotions get in the way of doing her job well.
I forgot to add one thing. When Howard Dean said all those years back that the GOP was a largely white christian male party I don’t think he accidently excluded women from that statement. Dems own the women’s vote in most elections and this won’t hurt that effort. I kind of found it interesting that the feminist group NOW came out in support of Sotomayor almost immediately yesterday but now I think I am startinig to see the strategy.
Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe will never bolt the GOP. This is a small state (duh, you knew that), everybody in politics knows each other, and these women are hard-core Mainuhs, especially Collins, who is from the County (Aroostook). The party loyalties and relationships here go back generations. Their seats are safe, Maine respects independence and orneriness. They’re just going to have to keep their heads down and do the right thing while the rest of the party goes up in flames. The cracker Christianist male base may hate them, but they get royally courted, too, and they love it.
She’s in. It’s a lock. Oh, the minor dust-ups that swirl around any SC nominee will continue to entertain for a while, but there’s no way her appointment is in any real danger.
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Hugely ironic that Michael Steele is among the more sane GOOPer voices out there…
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So Roberts and Scalia are intellectual giants who just happen to decide every case in favor of the wealthy and powerful. If that’s their definition of brilliance, no thanks.
Yeah, I think she is in too. I’m not going to call it a lock yet but I think she’ll pass.
I think the GOP has a definite problem with the non-***** part of the population. Mix in her funny last name Mark Krikorian (who doesn’t have a funny last name) says is a strain on our identity as Americans and the GOP’s problems become paramount.
It’s a good think Harriet Miers had one of those easy names and didn’t spell it Mayer or something non-American.
venom is the GOP stock in trade. only in limbaugh/buchanan/tancredo
world could being top student at Princeton and Yale Law School be
derided as being dumb. for the wingers, Judge Sotomayor is a two-fer, she’s Hispanic and a woman.
let’s be clear what they are saying is Judge Sotomayor is a “perra.” [beyotch]
forgot about the sensor. The **** should read non-pen*s part of the population.
As a historical note (very recent history), the “feelings” meme sprang from Obama’s statement (two weeks ago) that he wanted someone with “empathy”. Obviously, the folks responsible for GOP strategy listened very closely to Obama’s statement that day in order to pull out something they thought they could use to push the standard “activist” idea. It’s absolutely incoherent logically and definitionally. And as we’ve now seen thanks to media matters, Bush 1 and Thomas themselves both said they thought ‘empathy’ a key positive.
Just thought I’d point this out as a good example of how the propaganda job gets done by these people.
… complicate the GOP’s efforts to shake off its image as intolerant, backward-looking, harshly obstructionist, and captive to extreme elements.
Until that is no longer an accurate description of their leadership, it’s going to be hard to shake the image. Given how powerful the DeMint “we’d rather be pure than popular” element of that leadership has become, it could be a long project.
In examining the media, we need to enjoy this rare opportunity to pin some of the right meanies to the wall. They use twisted and out-of-context quotes to make points, they squeal about “empathy” and “activism.” If over 17 years a racist judge made unfounded rulings that ignored the law, common sense tells you that dozens of her rulings would be appealed to the Supreme Court. Six — out of 380 — have. with 2 upheld, 3 reversed (leading some idiot to say she had a 60% reversal rate) and one undecided as I write this. So these critics either lack common sense or twisted her words with malice aforethought. We know Rush does it for the money, and suspect the Seans and Pats do it in hopes of emulating Rush’s financial success.
Which means they are willing to poison genuine political debate with fake quotes and outright lies.
Gee, that makes them — I hesitate but conclude in this case it is the right word — unAmerican.