Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Sotomayor: Day 2

We're into Day two of the Sotomayor nomination and we're seeing some themes reveal themselves. On the Democrat side the watchwords seem to be about biography, "compelling personal story", "mainstream", "agrees with conservatives on stuff", "moderate", and chortled declarations that if Republicans can't support her, they can't support anyone. Meanwhile the right's reaction has been split into two parts. From the right wing commentators we've got some variation of "half-wit affirmative action harpy", "possible immigrant", "reverse racist", and "most liberal person ever". As for elected Republicans, well I don't know, do you think there were talking points?
Orrin Hatch (R-Utah): "I will focus on determining whether Judge Sotomayor is committed to deciding cases based only on the law as made by the people and their elected representatives, not on personal feelings or politics."

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): "We will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences."

Charles Grassley (R-Iowa): "The Judiciary Committee should take time to ensure that the nominee will be true to the Constitution and apply the law, not personal politics, feelings or preferences."

John Cornyn (R-Tx.): "She must prove her commitment to impartially deciding cases based on the law, rather than based on her own personal politics, feelings, and preferences."
Uh-oh, a damned woman with her damned feelings and opinions is gonna muck up the He-Man Supreme Court Club. Obama didn't nominate a robot or a man, so now we have to deal with emotions and a uterus blocking the cold Constitutional calculations of the finely honed legal gland. I'm disappointed too. The Supreme Court is no place for feelings, which you only hear about when women are nominated.

Eventually we'll realize this and replace the justices with an emotionless robot voice connected to a complex series of punch cards and wires that booms down judgments from on high. Then we'll have perfect justice, until a week later when SCOTUSbot judges that the only way to save us is to enslave us. Until then we'll have to deal with Sotomayor's feelings and the fact that those feelings will make no significant alteration to the court's 5-4 makeup.

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