The American Spectator

Oldefarte| 5.27.09 @ 10:57AM

As Philip said, the Democrats have the numbers and she'll be confirmed; but I don't care if the Republican's attack [questions] are respectful or not. I have unfond memories of Sessions', Bork's and Thomas' hearings [which were far from respectful], so I hope the Republicans BRING IT ON! As another AS editorialist recently said, when you're in a street fight, you have to bring a gun if your opponent brings a knife. I hope its mean spirited, racial, demeaning,etc. If Republicans ever hope to stand a chance at getting back in the political arena, they had better learn to FIGHT AS DIRTY AS LEGALLY POSSIBLE!!!!!!!

JP| 5.27.09 @ 12:03PM

I'd say the GOP needs to make the Dems and Obama earn thier judge. They should politely grill her. She should be made to explain in detail her judicial philosophy, her past opinions, as well as explain why 4 of her opinions were over-ruled by SCOTUS.

If she is to enjoy a life long seat on the high court, the GOP needs to allow the electorate to see and understand her positions on race, quotas, racial spoils, and not to mention her opinion that the courts set and control policy questions. If the GOP does that, and there is sufficient back lash from the MSM and Dems, the attenent publicity could get the attention of the average Joe. At that point the so-called Senate Blue Dogs may actually back-off supporting her. She would still get approved, but her nomination could be a rallying cry in 2010 and actually cost the Dems a few Senate seats.

Of course, the GOP could just play nice and lay down. If I remember Justice Ginsberg got all but 3 of the GOP votes.

Real American| 5.27.09 @ 12:27PM

The Democrats spent 8 years telling the American people that ideology matters and that extremists shouldn't be permitted to serve on the federal bench. Let's take them at their word. Sotomayor is a left-wing extremist by all measures. She's an activist judge, who doesn't have the temperament to serve on the SCOTUS and not in the code-word way the left used it. Anyway, the GOP should do all they can to show the American people her true left-wing colors and draw a great distinction between her, Obama and the rest of the country.

Big Jim| 5.27.09 @ 3:32PM

I agree with JP except that I see no need or purpose in being polite to this racist. The Republicans should skin her down to her bare bones. What price did the dims pay for their treatment of Bush's latino nominee to the DC circut? NONE. He wasn't a racist either, just an honest, intellegent judge.

john smithson| 5.27.09 @ 4:12PM

Philip
I intend to put your comments on my blog. O.K. ?

J Smithson
Editor
http://midknightreview.blogspot.com/
respond at jsjohnnt@aol.com
Thanks

Siegfried X| 5.27.09 @ 4:58PM

I agree totally. It is about pay for performance. We elect Republican senators to vote like Republicans. Those that don't perform should lose their jobs in the primaries.

Each election season we are told that we should vote for each and every Republican, no matter how liberal, because of the Supreme Court. Yet when we elect those Republicans, many of them end up voting like Democrats anyway.

Siegfried X| 5.27.09 @ 5:02PM

Reading the column more closely, I must strongly disagree with "I share the traditional view that elections have consequences and that the president should get to have his appointments confirmed as long as the nominees aren't corrupt or blatantly unqualified for their positions. "

That's not what the constitution says. Times have changed since that traditional approach was in vogue. Justices now are super-legislators who invent constitutional rights and override all US democracy. If we challenge the confirmation of cabinet officials, who are really just managerial personnel responsible to the President for an executive role, we should much more strongly challenge Supreme Court nominees.

We have already given way too much power to the Supreme Court. Why throw away the last check & balances we have left?

Spicy Joker| 5.27.09 @ 5:30PM

The name of this article should've been "The Sotomayor Flight." Jeff Sessions has already said the Repukelickans won't filibuster her.

Cameron| 5.28.09 @ 12:24PM

Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.

-Radical activist Judge Sonia Sotomayer.

Oh, wait, shit. That was Sam Alito. Philip, if this is honestly the best you can do to oppose Sotomayer you might as well just quit right now. First and foremost, you can't even cite a single case from her 10+ years on the appellate bench where she has ignored the law and ruled solely based on her "experience." Aside from that, see your boy Alito's quotation above. Anyone who claims a judge can truly be 100% impartial is either delusional, or a partisan hack. I'd place you firmly in the latter category.

low-tech cyclist| 5.28.09 @ 12:29PM

John Cole's comment in the pingback has it nailed: Klein's piece could have been written anytime after Obama made his 'empathy' remark. There's no evidence given here that Sotomayor is what Klein claims she is; in fact, there's nothing about Sotomayor at all. It looks like Klein wrote this piece two weeks ago, and filled in Sotomayor's name sometime this week.

I hope Klein's piece gets as wide a circulation as possible, because it's an excellent example of the flatlining of the right wing's brain waves.

EddieInCA| 5.28.09 @ 12:38PM

Phillip -

Can you show one case where Judge Sotomayor, "instead of making impartial rulings based on the law and the Constitution, based her decision (at least in part) on their own experiences and ethnic background?"

One.

Just one.

Oh, right. You can't. Or else you would have.

cleek| 5.28.09 @ 12:42PM

"The Obama/Sotomayor idea that judges, instead of making impartial rulings based on the law and the Constitution, should base their decisions on their own experiences and ethnic background, is outrageous"

no, what's outrageous is the way you repeat this bullshit without providing any evidence that it's actually true.

hack

cleek| 5.28.09 @ 12:42PM

"The Obama/Sotomayor idea that judges, instead of making impartial rulings based on the law and the Constitution, should base their decisions on their own experiences and ethnic background, is outrageous"

no, what's outrageous is the way you repeat this nonsense without providing any evidence that it's actually true.

hack

bug-me-not| 5.28.09 @ 1:08PM

Stop phoning it in, Mr. Klein. If you think Sotomayer makes decisions based on her ethnicity and not the law, then point to a case where she has done so. And kindly explain why, when Alito said during his confirmation hearing that his background influences his decisions, you and yours didn't raise a stink about it then.

ReverseRacist| 5.28.09 @ 1:31PM

Apparently Mr.Klein doesn't feel the need to back up his statements with any facts. You know, there are hundreds of court cases which Sotomayor has presided, which Klein can look through and present us with the evidence needed to confirm she is "radical".

But, Klein will never do it. Instead, he'll just repeat the same garbage that all the rest of these dimwits barf out to the world.

Because, if Klein were to go back and read testimony from people like Alito and Roberts, you'll see that word "empathy" come up, as well as how their lives effect they way they view the world.

Once again, Klein is nothing but interwebs FAIL

Azhrie139| 5.28.09 @ 1:56PM

Oh look, a surprising lack of case law or any substantial support for an arguement. Color me surprised.

Bokonon| 5.28.09 @ 2:21PM

Guys -

Forming an amen chorus and repeating the buzzword mantra that Sotomayor is an "extremist" and "activist" and "unfit to serve" is just weak (as are the never-ending calls to purge the moderates from the GOP). What are you basing this stuff on - besides the fact that it is going around the web in an echo-chamber?

As it happens, Newt and Rush got Judge Sotomayor's "racist" statement wrong. She was actually talking about the need to keep one's personal prejudices and viewpoints from unduly influencing legal rulings as a judge.

So ... that claim about racism and bias is built on sand, and it will be easily refuted.

We are talking about being effective versus being ineffective. Screaming with frustration and trying to brand Sotomayor with partisan labels may feel good, but it won't win the battle. So the GOP needs to do more than try to brand Sotomayor with mean names and throw a fit over the permutations of the word "empathy." It needs to actually look at the substance of her record on the bench, and address the substance during the confirmation hearings. Because without that ... opposing her nomination is then just a doomed effort, and nothing more than petty retribution for the rough confirmation hearings that Bork, Thomas, etc. went through years ago. And score-settling will look like what it is.

The end result won't be a rebuilding exercise for the GOP - it will just be a potential public relations debacle, and pointless besides.

woobie| 5.28.09 @ 2:22PM

Philip Klying is to journalism what Cheney is to quail hunting. Can't hit a target and looks like he is a million miles from home. Don't quit your day job Philip - oh crap, this is your day job?

Beej| 5.28.09 @ 2:31PM

Sotomayor has made hundreds of decisions. Please cite the ones where she has based her ruling on something other than the law. Oh and, Big Jim, before you label someone a racist based on one line out of a graduation speech 7 years ago, you really ought to read the whole speech.
And maybe you ought to watch or read the transcript of Samuel Alito's remarks during his confirmation hearings regarding the ways in which his ethnic and cultural background informs his judicial decisions. Funny, I don't remember anyone being incensed about that. Try Googling some of these things. You will need to change your tune, unless, of course, it is only your politics that informs your opinions.

Lost Left Coaster| 5.28.09 @ 2:45PM

I think if Republicans are going to make the case against Sotomayor, they're going to have to actually, you know, make the case. As in, delve into her decisions. She's written hundreds of pages that will illuminate her legal thinking. I am anxiously awaiting specific passages from her rulings that will illustrate the allegations made here. Otherwise, the charge rings hollow.

Laure K| 5.28.09 @ 3:05PM

People, go easy on Mr. Klein. Conserva-blogging is hard work. In addition to to writing boilerplate like this, you expect him to also wade through 150 or so opinions that Judge Sotomayer wrote? You might as well ask him to give you the moon.

Sotomayor is a vile racist. Also. [insert out-of-context quotation from 2001]

Phew. That was hard work. Off to get a diet Tab.

Bokonon| 5.28.09 @ 3:59PM

Well ... if you don't have good reasons, you can always invent them out of whole cloth. Sure beats having to read all those legal decisions and examine her record (boring!)

I mean ... I have it on high authority that Judge Sotomayor is personally responsible for ACORN, Barney Frank and George Soros, as well as the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies and A-Rod's steriod use. She is a dark, sinister, extreme partisan who favors man-animal hybrids and mandatory gay marriage between straight people. And she is alleged to eat Grey Poupon mustard at every meal.

So there. Repeat away.

Xanthippas| 5.28.09 @ 6:12PM

Only someone who understands nothing about any of Sotomayor's opinions could possibly write this.

stilletto| 5.28.09 @ 8:49PM

Well, Real American, how many hours did you study judge Sotomayor's written opinions before you reached your conclusion she is a rabid left wing radical. After my studies she seems a bit too conservative for my taste.

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