*Warning*
This is a political post. I just want to warn you so you can move along or go straight to comments and tell me how you don’t like to talk politics. Or you can just unfollow me like THIRTEEN people did on Twitter today when Dana and I were discussing gay marriage.
Although, in my defense, at one point I tried to turn the discussion to dildos, but nobody wanted to join in that discussion.
Well, President Obama has made his first Supreme Court nomination. It’s US Appeals Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. This pick isn’t exactly a surprise as many liberal groups have been pushing for her, and many conservative groups have been running whisper campaigns against her since the day Souter announced his resignation. I’m sure that as I type this many people are running to their favorite left-wing or right-wing blog to find out what to think and say about this pick.
My reaction? Meh … *shrugs shoulders* I personally find her to be intelligent, articulate, educated, experienced and her life story inspiring. But, I don’t really know anything about her.
But, I don’t think it really mattered all that much who Obama picked. The positions on the issues were going to be the same. Both party establishments have a list of people they want on the supreme court and when there is an opening those are the names given to the President for him to consider. George Bush attempted to buck this system when he appointed Harriet Miers. And how did that work out for Dubya? He was crushed by his own party’s establishment.
It didn’t used to be this way. But, when Justices O’Connor and Souter turned out not to be the reliable votes Reagan and H.W. Bush thought they would be, both parties revamped their nominee plans. Now very little is left to chance.
There will be lots of people spouting off their opposition or support of Sotomayor. For the most part they will be just repeating talking points and based on political ideology. And whichever side of the culture wars that person is on. It would be nice if we judged our judge nominees on the basis of their character and qualifications instead of politically ideology. But, since they aren’t nominated on that basis, but instead on political ideology I guess that’s not possible.
If I were advising the republicans I would tell them to basically take a dive on Sotomayor. And let’s face it, if they would listen to my advice they would be doing much better right now. At least not any worse than they are doing right now. The republicans can go out and “expose” Sotomayor’s positions on the hot button cultural issues. And they should do a thorough job of questioning her in the confirmation hearings. But, in the end, there won’t be much they can do. And, to use up a lot of political energy and resources on a lost cause will only hurt them on other issues.
And the republicans need to find an issue or person they can actually look like they are cooperating on. They can’t just take an absolute position on every single thing and look like a party that is interested in being part of the governing process.
Besides, how could the republicans spend the whole summer going all out to try to stop an Hispanic female and then turn around and have any political credibility to fight immigration reform in the fall? If they do that the republican share of the Hispanic vote will continue to get smaller and smaller.
(Remember how the media kept saying Obama had a “Hispanic problem” during the election? Yeah, that turned out to be as bad as his Catholic and Woman problem. Meaning it didn’t exist.)
Am I saying that Obama was driven more by politics with this nomination than by beliefs?
*GASP!*
Just like all the rest of them, yes. And it’s a pretty brilliant move. Which he is pretty good at. You have a party that is already seen as anti-woman and anti-Hispanic, so what does he do? He nominates an Hispanic female. That’s politically clever.
Same goes for his saying that he was going to use “empathy” as one of the things he was looking for in a judicial nominee. Here you have a republican party that is seen, fair or not, as a party that lacks empathy for people and doesn’t care about people. So, he says he’s looking for someone with empathy. And right on queue a bunch of republicans donned their HUGE gold crosses and went on TV and talked about empathy as being “loopy” or “silly” or “crazy” or whatever and made fools of themseves.
Basically they took the bait.
Obama knew they wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to do that. He also knew that most people would separate the issue of a judge having empathy and the idea of empathy. And that the republicans wouldn’t differentiate the two either.
So, now the republicans have the chance to not take the bait this time. Will they resist the urge? I doubt it.
But, when the immigration debate comes along, and you’ve spent all your energy fighting a losing battle against an Hispanic woman judicial nominee and now you are again putting all your efforts into what will be characterized as anit-Hispanic activities again, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
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