Lindsay Graham said at the start of the Sotomayor hearing that unless she had a meltdown, she was getting confirmed. And, further, he didn’t think she was going to have a meltdown. So why did we have to waste all that time? Just to allow us to showcase to the world the endemic and virulent prejudice that pulses below the surface of our society, and worse, at the highest levels of government?
Gee, Senator Graham, thanks for the reminder.
Sen. Sessions looks at Judge Sotomayor and he thinks only “Puerto Rican” (or worse) because he incessantly brings up some GWB judicial nominee with a last name Estrada. As Rachel Maddow pointed out, Mr. Estrada was among many Bush II nominees rejected by the Senate. So, why the emphasis on Mr. Estrada? Why not any other right-wing, neo-con nominee who was rejected? Because prejudice boils under the surface of our the hallowed traditions of our democracy.
Sen. Sessions, please, please, attack her on her decisions, if you must. Question her application of the law in various decisions. Really, go nuts. But, don’t infect a basic Constitutional mechanism with prejudice. This land was founded as haven from intolerance and prejudice. A beacon to the world. Sen. Sessions, you have sullied the process and our national principles by your comments.
The bigger question is: why don’t you look at Judge Sotomayor and see an accomplished jurist? A person (not a woman and not a latina) who, through hard work and determination, sits before you seeking confirmation to the highest court in the land. I wish you could read her decisions without seeing her ethnic last name or knowing that she is a woman. I wish you could just take issue with her decisions. Her decisions speak louder than any sound bite on a lecture circuit and are the important matters at hand.
Chances are she will be confirmed. But the stain you have placed on this process will never come out.
Obama is back on the hot seat now that Jacko is dead, Sarah Palin is the Political Undead and Gov. Sanford got a “get out of jail free” card. Now the pundits are focused on the economy and why Obama hasn’t produced miracles yet.
If I were Obama, I would hope that another pop icon or political enigma hogs the airwaves for at least 6 months.
We dodged a serious bullet when Sarah Palin was not vice president. So, humankind 1, Sarah 0.
Then she scored big while we were feeling sorry for her. As a result of her “quitter” mentality and crazy press blitz, more Republicans than ever before support her and would vote for her for president in 2012. Sarah tied the score at 1 all.
I still think I watched Sarah Palin have a mini-breakdown before the cameras and I felt sorry for her, as I would anyone who was unraveling and even more so because she was doing so in the public view.
Now I also think she is crazy like a fox (or sociopath) AND I don’t understand a portion of the population of this great country.
I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy. (That’s my writing it like I mean it.)
I was away this weekend, trying to unplug and relax. I worried about a threatened North Korean attack on the Fourth of July but that would mean that Kim Dong Il was crazy, sick AND stupid. Still, in the back of my mind, I worried. I thought Honduras would continue in chaos as nations back the principle of democracy although probably not the president himself. Even Dick Cheney gave it a rest. Ok, I thought, the usual grandstanding in Washington while everyone sets about the “people’s business”.
Oh, no! Sarah Palin is back! Check Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. She is listed under antonyms for “articulate”, “cogent” and “decipherable”. She bails because she does not want to be a lame duck? So, she passes the fiscal mess (recession compounded by low oil revenues) to the lieutenant governor? Unless he is running for governor in the next election, isn’t he a lame duck as well? I guess she wins the title, “Lamer Duck of Alaska”. (There would have to be three competitors in order to have a “most lame”, but, Sarah, dear, don’t start worrying about grammar.) Must be something about the days of Sarah Barricuda or the beauty pageants.
So Governor Family Values Stanford goes down the Appalachian trail. Then Governor Responsibility in Government (but not in family planning) Palin goes OFF the Appalachian trail.
P.S.: Sarah, being a leader is about sticking it out when it becomes hard and tough decisions have to be made. Thank G-d you were not vice president. If you had to ascend to the presidency, would you have bailed if Russia got tough, or Pakistan fell to the Taliban?