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Sotomayor Table Setters for Today

By Quin Hillyer on 7.15.09 @ 7:51AM

Bench Memos, with Ed Whelan, Matthew Franck, Roger Clegg, Robert Alt, Andy McCarthy and others, continues to rock in terms of its Sotomayor coverage. We at the Washington Times have not one but two editorials on her hearings, the first talking about her direct contradictions of her own record, the second talking about her stance against gun rights. Meanwhile, even the Post's liberal Dana Milbank is struck by how "gingerly" the Republican senators treated Sotomayor. I myself would call it -- Jeff Sessions excepted -- "pathetically deferential." Sessions showed that there is a perfect middle ground between the nasty, brutal, smear tacti cs the Democrats used against various Republican nominees and the weak-kneed, halting treatment some of his GOP colleagues used against Sotomayor. Sessions was very fair but very tough, without ever being disrespectful. Sen. Grassley, on the other hand, never even challenged Sotomayor's weak explanation about why she used a (bogus) statute of limitations claim to let the Village of Port Chester run roughshod over a property owner named Didden. 

On her own considerable demerits, this nominee is very vulnerable. Republican senators are incompetent if they cannot figure that out.