“Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs did not say as he tried to spin away Judge Sotomayor’s emphatic statements about the superiority of appellate judges’ policymaking and the inferiority of white males’ decisionmaking. Gibbs did, however, repeat the “snippets” defense previously used to explain Mrs. Obama’s first time pride in her country and Rev. Wright’s roosting chickens. Will it work out as well for Sotomayor as it did for Wright?
Sotomayor’s “Snippets”
By Asher Embry
Those YouTube “snippets” lie, we’re told,
So don’t believe what you behold.
With that Gibbs starts to spin away;
Says Sonia didn’t mean to say:
Appellate courts make policy
And white men judge far worse than me.
While Sotomayer said it plain,
The White House’s playing games again.
Pretends the “news loops” shed false light,
Just as they did with Reverend Wright.
Though Gibbs will try to raise some doubt,
We all recall how that turned out!
He’ll say we must contextualize,
Or misconceptions will arise.
Her praise of court-made policy?
He says it drips with irony.
About that I’m superior thing
Which seems to have a racist ring?
Read on, he says; you’ll quickly see
She’s simply used hyperbole.
We fear we know the great allure,
Of Sonia Sotomayor:
Precisely that these quotes ring true
About the things as judge she’ll do.
Diversity and empathy —
The end result, no doubt will be
Decisions where she’ll intermix
The law with racial politics.
Regardless of how hard Gibbs tries,
We’re sticking with our “lying eyes.”
(You can read more of Asher Embry’s Political Verse at www.politicalverse.com.)
