I do believe that there are strong racial undercurrents in the fight (if you can call it that) over Sotomayor’s confirmation. On the one hand, right-wing criticism centers around the “wise Latina” remark, the Ricci decision, and the overall insinuation that she’s just not enough like white middle-America. On the other, Republicans know they can’t afford to alienate Latino voters any more than they already have.
But Ron Fournier’s exercise in mind-reading is just plain weird, and why it focuses only on Sotomayor and Leahy (when there’s a Republican KKK-sympathizer on the panel) would be anyone’s guess…were it not for Fournier’s history (via).
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MattF
Once again, the right-wing media machine thinks that the way to get at Obama is to keep push the same buttons, only harder. The notion that the game has changed in some basic way– that the wires on the backs of the buttons no longer lead anywhere– just hasn’t occurred to them
kay
The CNN pundits are appalling. I wish I hadn’t turned it on.
Drawing a direct link between Sotomayor’s ethnicity and her ruling in Ricci.
Look, this doesn’t even make sense. Two other judges went with her on the appellate panel. Four justices went her way on the SCOTUS. Why did those judges vote the way they did? They’re not Latinas. Why are we drawing a direct link with Sotomayor?
Latina = rules for minorities. There are other possible reasons for her decision.
If CNN is going to do a terrible job “analyzing” a complicated decision the best thing they could do is just skip the “legal” analysis, and stick to the politics. This is misinformation. It’s worse than not covering it at all.
steve s
i haven’t watched a cable news show in over a year. They’re 99% worthless garbage. Life is too short.
Comrade Jake
What really sucks here is that the vast majority of the public sees “AP” and thinks “news, objectivity”. It really is a major crime that right-wingers have been able to take it over.
dmsilev
Speaking of potentially alienating Latino voters, this is probably an opening salvo in that war.
-dms
Micheline
Face it there are many individuals in the media that are racists. We not only see that with Sotomayor but with the constant concern trolling with Obama.
Xecky Gilchrist
@steve s: i haven’t watched a cable news show in over a year. They’re 99% worthless garbage.
Things have changed since you looked last – they’re now 100% worthless garbage.
kay
@steve s:
I wanted to see her body language, but she’s at lunch, so I had to listen to Wolf Blitzer pretend he understands Ricci.
I like her. I’m emphatic towards her. It’s tough to defend on this. They’re accusing her of bias, which is just about the worst thing you can say about a judge, and that isn’t reflected in her record.
It’s infuriating. Let’s hope she’s calmer than I am.
bob h
Cornyn, with his large Hispanic electorate, was more the Southern gentleman than I expected today. Session came off like a cracker asshole.
anonevent
I might be worried about this hearing if it were about Sotomayor. The reason I’m not worried about Sotomayor is that this hearing is as much about her as a funeral is about the person being buried.
inkadu
It seems the Fournier Transform resulted in a null set.
Allan
We had to switch to C-SPAN because CNN only found the comments of Republicans to be worthy of broadcast. When Dems are speaking, let’s hear what the panel thinks.
steve s
Well i was leaving 1% for Fareed still being pretty good.
At night I leave the tv on pbs because low chatter seems to help. Last night I turned it on around 12:30 or so to go to bed and The McLaughlin Group was coming on. After about 5 mins of Pat Buchanan shouting functionally retarded things at me I had to turn it off.
I can understand why the media creates these shows. They’re really cheap, and dramatic. I can’t understand why anyone thinks they’re worth watching. They’re not. Any of a dozen blogs are smarter and more informative.
Dennis-SGMM
Giving up cable news not only left me better informed (Freed up time to read online versions of newspapers from other countries) it lowered my blood pressure by several points.
Brian J
Have I missed something, or is that “wise Latina” remark from a speech where she is talking about how an individual’s background can contribute, unintentionally and intentionally (but in a positive way), to application of the law? And in the same speech, doesn’t she say that no matter what personal preferences may be, the law is the law, and it needs to be applied as such?
Perhaps I am thinking of something else, but I seem to remember Rod Dhrer of BeliefNet (or some other conservative) saying that when he read the whole speech, he came to a different conclusion. If that’s the case, then these clowns who express shock and dismay over what she said by only picking her quotes out of context should be ashamed of themselves. Any legal scholars who do the same should be laughed at, as they have even less of an excuse. If I am thinking of something else, what speech is it?
steve s
@kay: I should have been more specific. They do give out some useful information. It’s the shouty pseudoanalysis that’s worthless. And 80% of the subjects they focus on.
Coming up…Barack Obama fails to wear a flag pin…is he siding with the terrorists?
kay
There are a lot of substantive reasons to question Sotomayor. This whole meme is silly. The way to not sound racist or sexist is to study up and ask real questions.
People aren’t idiots. They know a question when they hear one.
If Republicans want to push a “she’s a racist” theme, with elaborate predicates to set up fake questions, odds are they’re going to come off as obsessed with race. This isn’t hard.
steve s
I used to watch This Week, mainly as a holdover from when Brinkley hosted and George Will still had 2 neurons to rub together. When Stephanopoulis’s flag pen nonsense happened, that was all she wrote.
Germane Jackson
Apologies to John, but I also don’t really find the Sotomayor confirmation to be that compelling. She’s a shoo-in, and as a jurist she’s pretty moderate and unobjectionable. I’d personally prefer someone more liberal, but whatever. The only entertainment value to be had is watching the GOP try not to sound like the racist and sexist assholes that they are.
Demo Woman
Ron Fournier probably carries extra sprinkles in his pocket.
kay
@steve s:
I agree with you. I swear off, but it’s easy, and I’m at lunch.
You’ll laugh, but I wanted to see what she’s wearing. She mixes reds, which I love, and is just wild for a judge. She’s supposed to wear navy or black or brown. Spunky!
I know. I’m supposed to read the case law.
ironranger
@steve s: Flag pins? Ha, ha. Do republicans even wear them anymore?
steve s
Now what’s going to be interesting is in 2015, at the end of Obama’s tenure, when he has nothing to lose, and Scalia has a quadruple heart attack, and Obama nominates the head of the ACLU to replace him.
Those are gonna be some interesting hearings.
Punchy
@steve s: I hereby challenge you to find me the 1% that’s worthfull garbage.
John Cole
I’m reasonably sure someone, on this very website, cautioned against watching the hearings.
JGabriel
bob h:
Sessions is a cracker asshole.
.
Brian J
This relates to the theory I described a few weeks ago. I believe Obama offered Sotomayor up not only because he approved of her mindset and everything else she brings along, because of the political nature of her nomination. He knew the Republicans would act like idiots, which of course they didn’t have to; as kay pointed out above, there are substantive questions to be asked, but the Republicans won’t be asking them. Thus, once they destroy their credibility this time around, Obama can nominate someone much more liberal–a Scalia of the left–and have him or her sail through easily.
Punchy
No wonder nobody expects Fat Tony to kick anytime soon. The bastard’s got the circulatory system of an annelid.
I wonder if he feels the need to roll around on the sidewalk after a heavy rain……
kay
I like the blue a lot. It’s not orange, but this is a somber and dead-serious dog and pony show, after all.
Dennis-SGMM
@JGabriel:
Republicans may be bereft of ideas, their possible candidates for POTUS may be laughable but, they stand second to none in cracker assholes. It’s almost as if the War Between the States was a draw.
Demo Woman
@Punchy: He just needs to continue going hunting with Cheney.
I went to see what Drudge has to say about the hearings and here are his headlines
Can someone explain to me how the term activist is used. Sometimes it means if you follow the law, sometimes it means if you don’t follow the law. Repubs are so confusing.
gwangung
I’m disappointed. Nobody’s quoted this as FTW.
And it’s a FTW for the ages…..
Brachiator
I agree with you here, but there is also racist sexism at work, and America’s informal caste system. Where Republicans could easily accept Alberto Gonzales, because he was of their party, and also a man, some of these Republicans look at Sotomayor and see a Latina who should be making up the bed in their hotel room, not a jurist.
And it’s par for the course that the GOP is trying to transform the confirmation hearing into An Inadequate Latina vs the Last White American Hero. I wonder whether any of the GOP comments will try to portray Sotomayor as some kind of Puerto Rican radical.
I haven’t read a ride swath of the pro-Sotomayor essays, but I am surprised that stronger mainstream feminist support has not bubbled up.
The Republicans have already crossed this Rubicon. The McCain/Palin campaign put them on the course of being the party of “real” America, which largely consists of angry, fearful White Christians with Guns.
The GOP is far more worried about alienating Rush Limbaugh than they are concerned about alienating Latino voters.
The irony is that with the decline of newspapers, the AP becomes far more powerful as a news provider. When people talk about getting their news from the Internet, increasingly that means ideological blogs and AP stories.
That AP writers are wingnuts should be a cause of concern.
By the way, it is typical of the lameness of the media coverage over Ricci that for the most part they omit the fact that a Hispanic male was one of the original litigants, and instead play up the white male vs Sotomayor thing.
dr. luba
@Demo Woman:
Silly Democrat–everyone knows that activist judges are those who disagree with Scalito, the rabid religious right, and our corporate overlords.
Sheeesh…..
SGEW
Or a Pyrrhic victory.
Ash Can
I wonder how many Republicans on the panel have already written off Latino voters.
Dennis-SGMM
Fournier either misquoted Leahy “likewise, the first Catholic nominee …,” or Leahy didn’t do his homework. Roger Taney, a Catholic, was nominated by Andrew Jackson in 1836. Sotomayor will be twelfth Catholic SC justice and the sixth on the current court.
Pope Palpatine says “Booyah!”
linda
good grief…. they’re still doing their opening remarks!?!?!?!
Morbo
@dr. luba: Scalito is so pre-confirmation. Now that they’ve had time to participate in a few rulings, everyone knows Robito is the real pairing.
As for Sessions, all he goes to show is that you usually can judge a book by its cover when a white southerner has “Jefferson” for a first name. (Apologies if anyone here fits this description)
A Cat
@SGEW:
Or my favorite wingnutism, “Don’t these people realize they are a conquered people and should adopt our values?”
Demo Woman
Does anyone know when they will actually ask questions?
Lyle4
@Demo Woman: Tomorrow I guess? Today is only for opening statements.
Dennis-SGMM
@SGEW:
My admiration for Lincoln stops at his insistence that the Confederate States be forced to rejoin the Union. The fucked up economics of slavery would have had them begging to abandon that peculiar institution and be allowed back into the Union in about the same amount of time it took both sides to squander 618,000 lives to achieve the same result.
Demo Woman
This is OT for cat lovers
Cats ‘exploit’ humans by purring I did the link wrong sorry. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147566.stm
Balconesfault
@Comrade Jake:
Hell – in wingnuttia, “AP” means “liberal drive by media”.
The Grand Panjandrum
After reading the linked piece from Fournier I think we can safely asume Kreskin’s career is safe.
inkadu
@Dennis-SGMM: Are you on drugs? The south STILL wants to have nothing to do with the rest of the United States.
Balconesfault
@steve s:
Eh – if Harry is still in charge, the Dems better have about 75 seats, or they may never even take up the nomination.
No, you asshole. What he meant was “when you criticize Sotomayor, don’t be your normal race-baiting hackteriffic selves. People are actually watching this.”
gnomedad
@John Cole:
lolz, I was going to comment on John’s absence, but he couldn’t resist checking in on the car wreck rubberneckers.
@gwangung:
True; seconded.
catclub
Inkadu@47
Almost nothing to do with the rest of the US….
They are willing to take the money sent there.
linda
a nice shot of the ever-voluble chuck schumer — with sotomayor’s mother directly behind him, reacting to his comments about her daughter.
Demo Woman
@linda: Sotomayor gave a nice tribute to her mom. Her mother should be proud.
inkadu
gwangung, gnomedad: Maybe it would be funnier if I’d ever done a Fourier Transform. Alas, we skipped it in calculus class. But thanks for the accolades.
b-psycho
Am I the only one who interpreted the “wise latina” remark as a lame attempt at a self-deprecating wisecrack?
Much as I’d like for these hearings to suddenly shift to actual questions about her views on executive power & civil liberties, I know it ain’t gonna happen. I’m questioning why the hell I have it on in the background, to be honest.
J.D. Rhoades
@bob h:
There’s a reason for that.
White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob)
Fournier’s Carnac the Great act, as an exercise, really wasn’t all that different from the “shorter…” concept, found on this and other fine blogs.
Just saying.
inkadu
@Demo Woman:
What Sotomayor meant: Please don’t be mean to me for I was once a little girl.
Brachiator
@White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob):
I’m not looking for snark from the AP Washington bureau chief.
Germane Jackson
I’m disappointed. Nobody’s quoted this as FTW.
And it’s a FTW for the ages…..
… if you’re a complete and total nerd.
bago
@inkadu: Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a win.
inkadu
@Germane Jackson: As if getting FTW wasn’t itself nerdish.
someguy
But then you repeat yourself.
Catsy
@gwangung: I was planning on doing so as soon as I finished the thread. That is a brilliant pun that works on several different levels.
In order to explain it to my other, I had to link to the WP article on Fourier transformers and explain that the joke could be roughly translated as “Ron Fournier attempted to perform signal analysis on the Sotomayor hearings and produced nothing of value.”
But even the explanation was slightly punny.
Inkadu wins the thread. And possibly the internets, today.
asiangrrlMN
@Brian J: Nope. You nailed it in one convoluted, contrived ‘controversy’ manufactured by the GOP. Good job!
inkadu
@Catsy: I don’t know, Catsy… something about Fournier Transformers could also have been funny. Tagline: Pretty much the same thing as meets the eye.