Via his Twitter feed no less (and according to the AJC it is, in fact, Gingrich’s feed).
Two tweets of note:
White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.
and
Imagine a judicial nominee said “my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman” new racism is no better than old racism
Look, there is plenty of room to criticize the “wise Latina” quote (here’s one example and here’s another) but one of the things Sotomayor decidedly did not say is that her experience as a latina makeks her better than a white man. Indeed, as I noted in the previous post, and as Kerry Howley notes at Hit & Run, the context of the quote matters quite a bit (as, typically, is the case with all lines taken from a broader text–go and figure).
One of the amazing things here is that all of this is so utterly predictable, almost to the point of being preordained. I agree with Kevin Drum‘s designation of the whole thing as “Kabuki.” This would be true, btw, if it was a Republican making the nomination–just that some of the dialog and plot points would have been different, but the basic drama would be the same. In this case it was a foregone conclusion that Obama would pick a non-white male and hence the whole reverse discrimination/reverse racism arguments were going to fly. From there it was guaranteed that focus would be paid to some ruling, speech or article so as to prove the point.
Drum, in fact, lays out the future as follows:
We all know how this is going to play out. First, everyone is going to start looking for some dark secret in her background that will derail her nomination. That will probably fail. Then she’ll testify before the Senate, and everyone will ask what she thinks of Roe and Casey and Kelo. She’ll dutifully claim that she’s never even heard of these cases, and on the off chance that any of them ring a bell, she’ll sing the usual song about how it would be improper to say anything about any matter that might come before the court in the future. Which is everything. After a few weeks of this, all the Democrats and maybe a dozen or so Republicans will vote to confirm her and she’ll join the court in time for the fall term.It’s all so tedious.
Indeed.
I will say, however, that I think that the confirmation process is necessary and useful, as these candidate ought to be vetted. The part that I object to is the rerun of a back sitcom we have to go through every time a nomination is made.
Update: CNN is also covering the story: Gingrich: Sotomayor ‘racist,’ should withdraw nomination.
May 27th, 2024 at 11:08 pm
Robert Gibbs was asked about it today as well.
May 27th, 2024 at 11:48 pm
Ok, so plenty of people correctly predicted how the talk about a Supreme Court nominee would commence. Just because we know how things would turn out doesn’t mean we should ignore the substance of the remark–something I’ve seen you have addressed. To do otherwise is to put the emphasis on process over substance. That’s something the DC political-media axis does too well and the political blogosphere follows.
May 28th, 2024 at 7:29 am
My point would be that it shouldn’t be this predictable in terms of an almost scripted series of behaviors. The fact that it is as predictable a process as it is underscores that it actually less about evaluating the nominee and more about crass politics.
It would behoove Newt to read the whole speech, for one thing.
For another, it would behoove the Reps to be realistic about the kind of nominee that a Dem president to going to make, especially with a Dem controlled Senate (and you can reverse the party labels in terms of a general rule).
May 28th, 2024 at 2:00 pm
[...] views” position a bit more difficult to sustain. But, of course, one needs to stick to the script. addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fpoliblogger.com%2F%3Fp%3D15903′; addthis_title = [...]
May 28th, 2024 at 8:29 pm
Tom Tancredo said that she’s in the Latin equivalent of the KKK (La Raza.) I’ve always thought that we overlitigate as a society, but I”m starting to think one of these twits needs to be hit with a defamation suit.
Oh the irony of someone who said at a “Youth for Western Civilization”* sponsored speaking event that immigrants need to adapt themselves to “white, anglo-saxon culture” calling someone else racist.
*The group’s crest features the battle hammer of Charles Martel … which isn’t exactly reassuring given the iconography it conjures for nativists.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/?title=Charles_Martel_Society