Poll: GOP Opposition To Sotomayor Is Historically High
One of the running themes of this blog is the deepening isolation of the GOP, and this nugget, from CNN’s poll on Sonia Sotomayor, adds another striking data point:
“Republican opposition to Sotomayor’s confirmation is a higher level of opposition from the party out of power than any Supreme Court nominee has faced in the past two decades,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
Nearly two out of three Republicans oppose Sotomayor, CNN says, versus only 35% of Dems who opposed John Roberts and 46% of Dems who were against Samuel Alito.
By contrast, Republican officials clearly don’t have any real appetite for a battle over the Sotomayor nomination. Many GOP establishment consultant types have said again and again that opposing her could seriously damage the party’s efforts to broaden its appeal.
Yet opposition to her is running really strong among the GOP rank and file, even though she just isn’t that controversial a figure. Seems like another case where the base is at odds with Republican leaders, and is getting in the way of the party leadership’s efforts to remake the GOP and move it forward.
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GOOPer shrillness is at a historical high. All they’ve got left is their nutcase, dittohead “base” left to cater to.
The racist Limbaugh Idiocracy branch of the GOP, which includes House and Senate minority leadership, all those white Southern bigots, apparently comprises about two-thirds of today’s Republican Party. Whither the other third?
Hell you can have 100% of the 20% party oppose her. Who really gives a sh*t about those fringe schmucks?
Pretty much. Except that the leadership’s efforts have been pretty schizophrenic. Many of them see the need to remake (read: rebrand) their party, but there’s no consensus on what that brand should be. And few of them have any idea in which direction “forward” lies.
McConnell, Bohner, and Can’tor have pretty much reflected their dwindling base. Attempts to steer a less suicidal course seem to have come more from their second-tier players, such as committee chairmen… and NRSC wheels who actually have to worry about GOOPers getting re-elected.
The real problem is that Republicans are at historically low levels of party identification, and all that’s left of them (other than the tiny number of the hyper-cynical wealthy opportunists who actually run the party) are the troglodyte base who still believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old.
As long as the mass of the party remains that trogolodyte base, of course opposition to any Democtatic proposal or nominee will remain at historic highs.
The base seems more closely aligned to Rush and assorted hard right gasbags who appeal to the Souethern White voters. Doesn’t look like the official leadership is in charge. Perhaps M.Steele may be the problem? Will he ever be the “face” of the Republican Party????
SPAM alert.
84% of scientists believe global warming is man made via PEW.
http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1550
Tell CONGRESS to end the charades.
gw, that sounds like a consensus to me. People should forward that link to your congress persons to make sure they all inform the public.
Go, base! Keep it up! Marginalize your sorry, criminal party for the next hundred years.
This is so typically nuts – The Repugs know very well by now that Sotomayor is not an activist judge – not even close. She’s right down the middle most of the time. Her decisions are not tilted leftward.
If they oppose her, I hope Obama picks a raging radical next – just like Bush did to us. I knew when the left bitched about Harriet Myers that the next pick would be far worse, and it was. Well, I really Obama would learn to play that game.
She’s had 7 out of 8 cases brought to the Supreme Court OVERTURNED. I’m all for giving losers a second chance, but this is ridiculously poor performance. It’s like giving the trophy to the loser. Then again, Democrat fraud did this with Al Franken. Maybe they can do it again.
Seems like another case where the base is at odds with Republican leaders, and is getting in the way of the party leadership’s efforts to remake the GOP and move it forward.
They have only themselves to blame.
She’s had 7 out of 8 cases brought to the Supreme Court OVERTURNED. I’m all for giving losers a second chance
Is it? I’ve read it’s not all that unusual for an appeals court judge’s ruling to be overturned by SCOTUS.
What do you think SCOTUS exists for? How many of Sotomayor’s opinions were appealed to SCOTUS where they declined to review (an indication they had so little problem with the decision they felt no need to hear the case at all)?
(It’s not all that unusual for the ruling to be overturned if SCOTUS elects to hear the case, that is.)
Oddjob is right. The Supreme Court usually reverses when it accepts a case. So Sotomayor’s “reversal” rate is not unusual at all.
More to the point is whether she was following circuit precedent when she decided her cases at that level. All indications is that she did–even in the Ricci case. Conservatives should complain about the state of the law prior to that case, not that she followed it before the Supreme Court changed or clarified it. (And let’s remember that most Second Circuit judges agreed with her on that case before it went up on appeal.)
The real problem, as TomBetz rightly notes above, is that as fewer and fewer people self-identify as Republicans, the group becomes increasingly radicalized. And so their opposition to just about anything Democrats do, no matter how reasonable, will continue to hit historic highs.
Global Warming, Read this, especially the last paragraph & wake up to reality.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/3755623/meet-the-man-who-has-exposed-the-great-climate-change-con-trick.thtml
Seems to me more like this poll is saying that Dems are much more understanding and willing to give someone a chance and the benefit of the doubt while Republicans are completely blinded and boxed-in by their narrow ideals.
Duh. So 7 of 8 cases were overturned? So what about the other hundreds of cases that were not overturned or appealed to the Supreme Court? Second, the poll results aren’t backed up by any reasons why they oppose the nomination. The GOP has become Nancy Reagan, just say NO.And they have the temerity to call the Dem’s obstructionist.