The Christian Science Monitor offers this brilliant insight on GOP opposition to Sotomayor:
It’s a dilemma for the GOP, particularly among Hispanic voters. But Democrats could feel a backlash if she’s perceived as too liberal.Yeah.... a huge backlash... among the 1% of the population that pays any serious attention to the Supreme Court. Er, make that the 0.5% who pay serious attention and would get angry if Sotomayor were too liberal. Um... but they already vote Republican, so... some backlash.
Normally, "How do they come up with this nonsense" is a rhetorical question, but lo, the author tells us:
Writing on FoxNews.com, Ken Klukowski of the conservative American Civil Rights Union argues that the 68 - 31 confirmation vote is “a mixed result at best, and if her rulings from the bench show a clear liberal philosophy then the end result will be negative for the White House and Democrats.”Really, how many people can name a Supreme Court Justice even a year after his or her confirmation, let alone figure out when that person was a "swing vote" for a particular decision. And of that miniscule number of people, how many are so stupid that they don't understand that you need a majority of the court - five votes, not one - to support a particular outcome? Maybe three?
Now if you're arguing that a credulous mainstream media will repeat the sputterings of people like Klukowski, and report them to the public as gospel truth, you may have a point. But why should I believe that the mainstream media would be so... irresponsible? (*cough*)
There's no doubt a small wing of the GOP strategists who are developing a drinking problem over this, because they've pointed out over and over how stupid it is to have wasted political capital fighting the sure-thing confirmation of a pretty moderate Justice when they would receive a huge backlash from the Hispanic community. It's almost like, I dunno, there's a race thing going on.
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