Sonia Sotomayor Is a Racist?

Sonia Sotomayor is a racist, according to Rush Limbaugh, Tom Tancredo, and Newt Gingrich who are demanding President Obama must withdraw his selection of Judge Sotomayor

Apparently, the putative Republican leadership wants to stay on the fringes of mainstream American public opinion. President Obama will play it smart and continue to treat these few as if they speak for the Republican Party, even though they clearly don’t. Latinos are the voting bloc of the future and Republicans are completely losing what was once a strong foothold.

The Maryland Daily Record quotes Byron Warnken as saying that senators who might oppose Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy “can’t take the risk of offending… the Hispanic vote.” I think he overestimates a lot of senators, particularly those in states with an insignificant population of Latino voters. They don’t mind bringing down the GOP for 20 years if it furthers their personal politics.

The best advice for Republicans in how to deal with Sonia Sotomayor is the one offered by CNN’s Gloria Borger: the GOP should wait for a better target. All of this looks like they had the answer in the back of the book – the nominee must be rejected – and tried to craft the equation in light of the answer. I’ve seen defense lawyers do this quite effectively. These guys? Not so well.

I also find it incredibly annoying to pretend that having minority pride and making boastful statements about your own minority class is the same as a white person saying the same thing about white people. It is just not.

P.S. Note from the next day: The only thing more annoying to me – well, as annoying – as people calling Sotomayor a racist is all of this talk of the GOP leaders who are attacking Sotomayor as a racist are racist themselves. Please. There is ample evidence they are callous opportunists but does unfounded name calling always have to beget unfounded name-calling?