Sotomayor confirmed 68-31, despite the best efforts of the GOP to portray her as a racist quota queen. You would think they would have given that up after being beaten like a rented mule last November despite screaming Rev. Wright for 6 months, but I guess they wanted a chance to do to the hispanic vote what they have done with the black vote.
Mission accomplished, morans.
The Moar You Know
The GOP keeps on getting told to “take the hill” and never once thinks of fragging 1st Lieutenant Limbaugh.
May this happy state of affairs continue.
Demo Woman
John, The repubs that are in the Senate are morans! The Party of Eisenhower died when Reagan took the stage. It just took you a few decades to realize it.
Zifnab
So here’s the real joke. Of the 9 GOP Senators that voted for her, Mel Martinez was the only guy from a state clocking in at double digit hispanic voter registration (18.6%). Meanwhile, Ensign (Nevada), Cornyn and Hutchenson (f’ck Texas), and McCain (asshole), come from 20%+ states and were some of the loudest, proudest NO votes.
The Ladies of Maine – with some of the safest seats in the Senate – come from a state with less than 1% hispanic vote. If I was a Latino, I would be frothing pissed. That’s just outrageously insulting.
Joshua Norton
We should be hearing the howls of the 23%ers in just about 5,4,3,2…..
Molly
As a Texan, I was quite thrilled to see Kay Bailey and Cornyn vote against her confirmation. Si se puede, amigos.
General Winfield Stuck
Look what their base is doing with Obamacare. If they didn’t knuckle under they mighta found themselves on the business end of a white pointy hat..
Speaking of which. Word has it the bible brigades are planning a special commemorative barby cue for Lindsay Graham way on down Cracker Hell way.
And yes, I think we are moving square into racial confrontation with a certain faction of the GOP, and it is no longer about issues, and ever so less about ideology. The facade has come down and the gloves are off, and I will call it accordingly what I think it’s about.
Colette
Awesome, with extra awesome sauce: Sotomayor’s REAL birth certificate.
Minionero
That’s “beaten like a rented mule”, John.
Unless you’re implying that Obama himself is nothing more than a rented mule.
In which case, proceed.
jcricket
Is there anything the GOP believes right now that’s accurate, correct, on the right side of history, etc?
Is anything they’re fighting for something America would benefit from if the GOP wins?
Anything?
KCinDC
Hasn’t Hatch always voted to confirm before, saying that presidents should get the Supreme Court nominees they want? What’s up with him? Is he really that scared of a primary challenge?
jacy
There are several republicans I’d like to see beaten by a rented mule. A rented mule with nunchucks.
shoutingattherain
@Minionero:
You’d think he’d know that after listening to Mike Lange say it for years and years.
Just Me
It’s perhaps worth noting that Republican Mel Martinez has decided not to run for reelection.
He didn’t have to vote for Sotomayor to please Latino constituents, nor did he have to worry about the consequences of displeasing any other constituents.
Interesting how people will behave when they have nothing to lose.
lutton
Atrios too is surprised they didn’t ‘go all in’ trying to prevent her confirmation.
For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth on multiple issues, the right doesn’t seem to be able to win many battles, let alone the wars.
Why the democrats are still bothering to try to find some bipartisisan consensus with watered down bills is beyond comprehension.
Just Me
(Or Latina constituents, either.)
General Winfield Stuck
@shoutingattherain:
Just proves even college Perfessors suffer metaphor fail from time to time. Makes me feel a little smarter. Or at least not as dumb.
Sentient Puddle
Hello blue Texas and Arizona!
Balconesfault
Cornyn is an idiot … I guess he feels that since he just got re-elected, the hispanic population in Texas will forget about this by 2014. They won’t? Well, as I said, Cornyn is …
Hutchison I suspect would have not voted against Sotomayor except that she’s girding herself with some full-on crazy because that’s going to be what it takes to contend with Rick Perry in what promises to be a full-on secession-fetishizing tea-bagging race-baiting gun-toting bible-thumping wingnutapalooza in the Republican Primary next March.
To think that voting for Sotomayor could actually sink you in an election might seem ludicrous, but we’re talking the primaries for the Texas Republican Party, thank you.
Rick Perry last Sunday was in San Antonio, giving a sermon at an Evangelical Christian Church. I guess Kay Bailey had to come up with a response in kind.
Zifnab
@Minionero:
And we don’t know if that’s true until we see his birth certificate.
Riggsveda
“You would think they would have given that up after being beaten by a rented mule last November despite screaming Rev. Wright for 6 months, but I guess they wanted a chance to do to the hispanic vote what they have done with the black vote.”
It’s hard to give up comfort food.
Delia
Today’s Republicans: the party of investment bankers, loony neocons, and over-the-hill white trash. How can they go wrong?
parksideq
Looks like they’ve already done to the Hispanic vote what they’ve done to the black vote. Per Greg Sargent:
I understand that GOPers opposing Sotomayor’s confirmation was just red meat for the 28%ers, but it’s crap like this that is pushing the Republican Party toward the scrap heap of electoral history. And it’s not happening fast enough.
lamh31
OT: Don’t know if this is already posted, but BWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!
‘Punkin’ the Birthers: Priceless’
General Winfield Stuck
@Balconesfault:
Nope, they won’t. and they won’t in NM either. Hispanics are not real loud about these things, but they pay close attention.
Obama putting a Hispanic on the court and wingnuts voting nay after trying to paint her as racist is going to have two big effects in states where they make up a sizable part of the population.
First, it will bring many Hispanics into the political process who haven’t been voting because they don’t feel represented at the national level. And for those who have been voting, it will bend them more toward dems.
Wingnuts have just screwed themselves for a generation with Hispanic voters. First for their tactics on opposing her, then with their individual votes in the Senate.
Chuck Butcher
68-31 says a lot about what scares and what enthuses GOP Senators (and by extension Reps). It is not General Election, it is Primary Elections that they’re afraid of. Primaries are mostly about bases or reliable voting groups (highly educated, elderly) and an issue like Sotomayor plays there and unless you’re willing to postulate that Hispanics and moderates are a part of the GOP base there’s no Primary downside. A GE could be a big consideration in such a vote unless you’re assuming a win there once past Primary because of past election trends.
I’d have to ask AZ experts if McCain, for example, has anything to fear from Democrats in a GE, but the past says no. Confederate Party of Republicanism strides on.
Zifnab
@Sentient Puddle: Yeah, don’t hold your breath. We’re still running on Diebold voting machines in DeLaymandered districts down here. The Democrats could have a 3:1 advantage and it would still be a close race.
I took a trip down to the Tea Bagging festivities as the Sugar Land Town Hall back in April, and there was no shortage of wingnut fever in the suburbs of Houston.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHoRppvbQEA
Meet Congressman Pete Olsen. New Congressman, same as the old Congressman.
I’m all for Mayor Bill White, but after watching Dems spend millions on Congressional district races and get shut out 60 / 40, I’m not holding my breath.
lamh31
Menendez predicts fallout from anti-Sotomayor votes
mcc
538 has a graph showing this in dramatic fashion. It’s almost like there’s some sort of correlation there.
Fulcanelli
@lamh31: Ohhhh, pleeeeeease FSM, let this be true.
I’ll throw my cranky neighbor in a volcano, anything your noodly appendage wants, just pleeeeease let this be true.
I got a sawbuck that sez a YouTube mashup dance mix will up within 48 hours if this is confirmed.
Punkin’ the Birthers: Priceless. Please, please, please… Christ, I feel like James Brown.
SiubhanDuinne
Way O/T, and John, I promised myself a long time ago that I would never ever complain to you about the ads on this site because I know how annoying the whining can be — but jeez! A picture of a PUPPY with a BBQ fork stuck in his HEAD?? And an Xray of same, in case the photo wasn’t stomach-turning enough??
Sorry to break my promise, and I don’t really understand how the advertising on your site works, but this really bothered me. I sent a small PayPal donation the other day to help get the crazy fixed and I’d gladly donate a bit more if it would help remove the weirder and more disgusting of the ads. Like a PUPPY with a BBQ fork stuck in his HEAD.
Apologies to all for the rant. Now returning you to your regular programming . . . .
parksideq
@Just Me: The same can be applied to Sens. Gregg and Voinovich. It’s a sad day when a US Senator can only do the right thing if he has no one to answer to. Or, in the case of people like McCain, Ensign, etc., does the wrong thing because of the people they answer to.
@Sentient Puddle: A blue Texas, coupled with the current electoral college map, would practically guarantee a Democratic president every time. Even with it’s current trend toward purple, I don’t think we can even begin to consider that a reality before 2016, possibly 2020. Hopefully it comes sooner rather than later.
Makewi
Yeah, thank God she was a legitimate person of Hispanic ancestry, rather than that fake as piece of mierda Miguel Estrada.
General Winfield Stuck
@lamh31:
Teeheeeeeee!
Zifnab
@mcc: He basically concludes it’s a coincidence. Hutchinson is trying to out-crazy Perry. Ensign isn’t going to piss off his base because he’s already on edge after the sex scandal. Cornyn heads the RNSC, so he can’t rightly vote against the GOP’s majority, and McCain is just being a dick.
joe from Lowell
They Republicans are awfully quite about this today.
It’s strange to think that less than a month ago, they thought that flogging Sonia Sotomayor and Barack Obama as racists with corrupt judicial philosophies was a political winner.
It’s even funnier that so many wingnuts on the internet believed them, and started pre-emptively crowing about all the damage this nomination was doing to him. Today, you can’t find a Republican willing to bash her in public, and the ones voting against her sound apologetic about it.
ellaesther
@Demo Woman: (I just wanted to let you know that I thanked you over at my site for the list of Republicans who voted for her. Thanks again, so much!)
Brachiator
Ah, but remember that in the new land of birthers and Sarah Palin, white people can’t be racist, no matter what they say, but blacks and Latinos are the usual suspects. Andrew Sullivan notes how Blogger Ian Millhiser nails Senator Jim Inhofe with a little blast from the past.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/05/inhofe-sotomayor-racist/
By the way, did anyone ask to see Sotomayor’s birth certificate?
jacy
Yikes – if the other side didn’t have straw men, they’d have no men at all.
Let’s never, never, ever debate anything on its merits, let’s only have false equivalencies.
And Bill Clinton. Also.
I come from a state with a large and historic Latino population — even though I’m stuck in the damned south right now. If you think this isn’t going to cause trouble down the line for any Republican trying to woo Latino voters, well, you’re dumb.
Where I grew up, my grade school was about 30+ Hispanic. And these were kids whose families had been farming the San Luis Valley for a hell of a long time. Their grandparents had been there a lot longer than mine. They took their civic responsiblities very strongly, and they also took great pride in their culture and heritage. To have the first Latina Supreme Court justice derided as a racist and basically pummeled with that stick in public by a bunch of old white boys is going to lodge in a lot of peoples’ craws for a long, long time.
lamh31
Okay, I’m promise this is my last OT post, but did anyone else see this clip of Rick Sanchez (CNN) completely ripping into that Rick Scott anti-reform health guy who is supposedly funding the anti-reform effort? Check it out, it’s a thing of beauty.
CNN Anchor Rips Into Health Care CEO Who’s Funding Anti-Reform Effort
Anoniminous
The state GOP ’round these parts (New Mexico) have purged everyone who doesn’t faithfully follow the Conservative script.
NM delegation went from 2/3 to 5/0 (D/R) in the last election.
Yet MORE good news for the GOP and John McCain!
Violet
@Zifnab:
It’s a matter of time. Demographics are going to catch up with the Republicans eventually.
lamh31
Okay,
I’m already breaking my OT promise, but now, TPM is reporting that there evidently an INTRA-BIRTHER WAR brewing!!! Basically, the pot is calling the kettle “crazy”!!!!
This just gets better and better. I feel bad for laughing (naw not really)
Birther Vs. Birther : Andy Martin Calls Orly Taitz “Incompetent” And “Obvious Crackpot”
Shakira Botello
Very proud as a hyspanic to have Sonia sitting at the highest court of this country! Very proud for minorities who struggle… it is a sign that hard work does pay!
Congratulations Sonia!
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@SiubhanDuinne:
That ad unsettled me as well. I refreshed a couple of times and it changed to a cartoonish “Meet the Breeds” ad. Much better.
Litlebritdifrnt
There was a hispanic senator on MSNBC just now basically saying “when you have someone who is as qualified if not more qualified than any other nominee in two decades and who was appointed to the federal bench by a republican and the majority of republicans vote against her it is going to be remembered by the hispanic community because it is going to say to hispanics, no matter how much you achieve, no matter to what heights you rise YOU ARE STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR US” I thought that was a very, very telling comment.
gbear
@Colette:
Crap. I just found out that Sotomayer and I were born on the exact same day. Now I feel like a total fucking failure.
…although she’s probably never been in a band that headlined at First Avenue.
lamh31
@ Littlebritdifrnt
No offense to my “brown brethren”, but as an African American, I open my arms and say welcome to the club. We told ya so!!!
Roger Moore
@Zifnab:
Yes, you can justify why each Republican senator from a heavily Hispanic state voted against her, but think about what that says about the big picture. None of those Republicans think that it’s worth bothering to court the Hispanic vote, and they may even think that it’s worthwhile deliberately pissing off the Hispanic vote to appeal to the crazies. I think that’s exactly what’s going on here. The more Hispanics there are in a state, the more they’re hated by the racist wing of the Republican party, and the more Republican candidates have to attack them to play to the base.
gbear
They seem to be fighting for the death of their party. That’s a pretty big win for Americans.
Makewi
@jacy:
Yeah, because when someone writes “but I guess they wanted a chance to do to the hispanic vote what they have done with the black vote.” it becomes a false equivelancy to point out that the other side has done the same things but been given a pass on it.
But it’s ok because the Democrats are on the side of the Angels because they are Democrats, which means that someone has to fill the role of the Devil. I wonder who that will be? A real brain teaser that one.
In any case, she was qualified and that’s all that really matters. The rest is just an attempt to divide us into smaller and smaller groups so we can be more easily bribed into keep those in power where they are.
oh really
I don’t think they went all out to defeat Sotomayor because they know she isn’t any of the things they accused her of being. She’s a moderate. Her record is moderate. If her rhetoric sounds a lot more threatening or activist or liberal or progressive than her actual deeds, that should be familiar since it is very much like the man who selected her.
They knew they were going to lose, so they were satisfied with some token smearing, something that takes no effort at all for a Republican today.
If there were a health crisis on the high court and Obama had the opportunity to appoint several justices and thus change the balance on the court, and by some genetic fluke Sotomayor’s clone were available, guys like Lindsey Graham would be denouncing her as the spawn of Satan. Even Snowe would find it impossible to vote for such an extremist.
Should Obama ever screw up and appoint an actual liberal or progressive to a future open seat, there are now a bunch of Republicans who will be able to oppose such a nominee as a radical leftist. They will lend credibility to nuttier Republicans by virtue of having voted for Sotomayor.
This was neither a win nor a loss for Republicans.
arguingwithsignposts
Per Rick Perry comments, this is a Palin episode if I’ve seen one:
I hope someone is praying for God to slap Perry upside his white privileged southern boy head, put some sense in there.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
nobody could have predictedPete Wilson could have predictedAnybody in California politics could have predictedAnybody with an IQ above room temperature could have predicted that this would happen. [fixt]
Does anybody remember when California was a key swing state in national elections?
On the other hand, the wingnuts probably look at CA right now, budget disaster and all, and think Mission Accomplished, so maybe they see this plan as the yellow brick road leading to their personal Oz.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
Down to the size your group can be drowned in the bathtub.
Shakira Botello
Thank you Litlebritdifrnt…
Very inspiring to hear that. I am puertorican so I know what it is to get the tail end of the stick, and having to do better than the guy next door or you will be passed over. But this gives me hope and as well with Obama’s election that maybe, just maybe we are starting to be color blind…
Makewi
@General Winfield Stuck:
I figured you were the homicidal type. Hopefully the hospital staff is keeping an eye on you.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
It was wordplay on the Grover Norquist famous line of republicans “Shrinking the Government down to the size it can be drowned in the bathtub” I should have known you wouldn’t know that, due to not knowing much of anything since you arrived here.
Gwangung
@General Winfield Stuck: Yup. Bozos who claim that are admitting they can’t do politics. The essence is to divide and group as needed.
Gwangung
@General Winfield Stuck: DNFTT. She feigns ignorance,
Dr. Loveless
@lamh31:
See, if they’d only checked the kerning, they wouldn’t have fallen for it.
Makewi
@General Winfield Stuck:
No I got the line, the problem for you is that I’m not a Republican. Well, that and your raging anal cysts. I’m told that you won’t stop picking at them, so there’s really no chance of them getting any better.
The good news for you is that due to your loyalty the party has agreed to boil your bones down into glue sooner rather than later.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
You’re all about class, dude.
Makewi
@General Winfield Stuck:
I learned by watching you.
jacy
@General Winfield Stuck:
Gosh, it almost makes Sully’s reluctance to allow comments seem reasonable.
Anyway, what were we talking about?
MattF
I just wonder how the wingers would react if a real leftist ever turned up in Obama’s administration. Accidentally, one presumes.
JD Rhoades
@Makewi:
I learned by watching you.
Just when I think you can’t get any more hackneyed and unoriginal, you go right for the third-grade-level comeback. You never cease to amaze.
shelley matheis
jacy
Oh, oh, I know what I was going ask — and it’s off topic, because I’m a bad, bad girl.
John, or anybody for that matter: didn’t there used to a feature on the site where you could donate using Amazon Accounts?
I don’t do the PayPal, because I’m all mavericky-like and am betaing the Amazon Accounts. I wanted to pitch in the other day, but then I’d have to use the S/O’s PayPal — which I can, if need be.
Did you once have an Amazon Tip Jar, or am I thinking of something else?
General Winfield Stuck
@JD Rhoades:
Yup, no way to answer that without harming me brain.
robertdsc
I’m on record as criticizing the Administration for a whole bunch of failure, but they got Sotomayor right and I’m glad for that.
kay
I love that the GOP Senators think the same question phrased 800 different way is a brutal and intimidating examination.
And clever! They were so smug and pleased with themselves. After that many years on the bench, Judge Sotomayor must have found it difficult not to smirk.
They made asses of themselves on television for hours. Cringe-worthy. Watching that performance was painful once, I can’t imagine how it will age.
Not well.
burnspbesq
@Makewi:
That’s a surprisingly rational take, given the general tenor of your comments earlier in the week. I am tempted to ask, “were you spoofing then or are you spoofing now?” instead, I will say “welcome to the reality-based community. Stick around a while. You might find that you like it.”
ruemara
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Well shewt. I’ve been living that life now for nigh on 40 years. It’s not too bad if you can keep your chin up.
That being said, I & the mr (nyorican) had a good hi 5 at the news.
tavella
I adore the picture with the “birth certificate”, the typewriter, and the coin. It’s so beautifully composed.
And yes, it’s authentic — for one, the matching ‘Orly’ image is higher resolution than the one Orly posted, and you can see details of where they put a bit of bark or something over a typo, which stained the paper across the crease when they folded it, and then they’ve flicked it away for the ‘reveal’ shot.
First class punking work there!
Corner Stone
@oh really:
HA! BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
someguy
Well, when you can’t lynch the blacks any longer, I guess it means it’s time to go after the latinos.
PaulB
ROFL…. Dear heart, there is one key difference between Estrada and Sotomayor, and it is that key difference that allowed the Democrats to suffer no ill effects from their failure to support Estrada. Sadly, the Republicans will get no such pass. The key difference? That’s left as an exercise for the reader. Those who aren’t mindless partisans and trolls will immediately get it.
Glocksman
@Dr. Loveless:
Nah, as the kerning would have been perfect since the typewritten parts of the document came from a genuine 1940’s era Royal typewriter.
As an aside, those are some heavy pieces of equipment.
My grandmother (who passed away in 1976) left us one and I used it for schoolwork through the 1980’s.
Those typewriters are some serious iron. :)
burnspbesq
@PaulB:
“Dear heart, there is one key difference between Estrada and Sotomayor, and it is that key difference that allowed the Democrats to suffer no ill effects from their failure to support Estrada. Sadly, the Republicans will get no such pass. The key difference? That’s left as an exercise for the reader. Those who aren’t mindless partisans and trolls will immediately get it.”
That would be “Sotomayor is competent and Estrada is a hack,” right?
gwangung
@burnspbesq: Well…if you work WITH groups that are well respected in the Latino community, you tend not to suffer ill effects from that community.