Obama and the Thought Police
Let the race card playing begin! Step right up; dare to criticise the Candidate. Be condemned as a racist! Only subtly and without a good sound bite for the talking heads.
In case anyone was unable to read between the lines, that’s exactly what happened during a press conference today (27 May ) at the White House.
“I think it is probably important for anybody involved in this debate to be exceedingly careful with the way in which they’ve decided to describe different aspects of this impending confirmation,” Gibbs said.
Translation: No questioning Sonia Sotomayor’s extreme leftist views: that’s racism.
Gibbs was responding to a blog posting by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich accusing Sotomayor of imposing identity politics on the bench and declaring: “A white man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. A Latina woman racist should also withdraw.”
The exchange was triggered when reports surfaced that Supreme Court candidate Sotomayor once opined “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,”
This nominee was selected by the President who insisted during the campaign “There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of America.”
Seems rather clear to me. Ms. Sotomayor, in voicing her opinion that a “wise Latina woman” will, for the most part, make better decisions that a white male is engaging in racial stereotyping: white men are less empathetic than Latina women ergo Latina women make better judges then white men.
Sheer, utter, nonsense. (Incidently, empathy has no place in law.)
That such a biased individual might sit on the highest court in the land terrifies me.
Sonia Sotomayor, unlike President Obama, has a paper trail and following that trail, wherever it leads, is the legitimate exercise of the journalistic profession.
So Mr. Gibbs, I respectfully request you allow the vetting process to proceed normally. Stop the threats so thinly veiled in PC speak.
Face it, the citizenry will find out what Ms. Sotomayor has been up to for the past several years and they’re not going to like it!
Candidate Sotomayor has made some very controversial statements. I expect a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences” to understand she is fair game.
The process is nasty (ask Clarence Thomas or Robert Bork) generating lots of unflattering press.
Comes with the job.
and if God is merciful, she won’t get it.
4 comments
I think you’re reading too much into that quote.
Why wouldn’t a Latina woman (or any person) who is wise and has rich experiences reach a better conclusion than a white male (or anyone else) who is not wise and does not have rich experiences?
Reading too much into the quote? No.
If the words “Latina woman” and “White male” would be reversed in that statement, it would be declared racist.
And that’s exactly what her quote is.
What’s the context of the quote though. Was someone asking her about her opinion on if she’d be better at something (perhaps being a judge) than someone else (e.g. a white male who just happens to be an accountant)? Was the race card put out there in a question to her and she responded using it?
There are too many possibilities out there for the reason behind a 1 sentence comment for someone to get horribly upset about. Before anyone goes off the deep end, get the context and THEN make your decision.
Before you flame me, understand that if someone has a proven history of being racist, then that’s one thing, and perhaps she shouldn’t be on the bench. However, before you react, I think you should always be cool, calm, and LOGICAL. That means questioning…especially if you’re only being presented w/a partial story. Both the Left and the Right are guilty of contorting words to suit their needs.
Editor’s Note:
It appears the context is a speech made in 2001 [http://www.shan.biz/politics/sotomayor-racist-comments] at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley. In that speech, Ms. Sotomayor disputed the assertion made by current Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her retired Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor — that a wise old man and a wise old woman would reach the same conclusion when deciding cases.
Her assertion is the circumstances of one’s life make one a better or worse judge.
It is my assertion the only qualification for Supreme Court Justice is a deeply held conviction that judges interpret not make law.
Her statement “Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see,” indicates a breath-taking lack of objectivity.
Ms. Sotomayor has demonstrated on numerous occasions her disregard of this first principle.
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