I’m sorry if I seem a bit rattled by the attacks on Sonia Sotomayor. I think it’s a fascinating collision of blogging, the continuing nefarious influence of TNR, and the white male punditosaurus. Via commenter JDM, I see that wingnut welfare enters into it as well: Rosen’s wife works at the far-right Ethics and Public Policy Center (which also employs Rick Santorum) and Rosen gave a speech about SCOTUS nominations there a few weeks ago in 2006.
Now, I don’t know how much Rosen’s wife is paid nor how much Rosen was paid for speaking before them. And his wife’s writing doesn’t seem quite as wingnutty as much of what comes from the EPPC (though her articles do appear in The National Review sometimes).
But at a certain point, isn’t this kind of conflict of interest deeply troubling? A journalist writes an inaccurate smear job of a *potential* SCOTUS nomination while receiving having received money from a place that will oppose the nomination and which employs his wife? Not so good, no?