The Republic of Dogs

I’m not exactly a huge fan of Obama’s right now, but I have to concede that the Sotomayor nomination is an act of pure political genius.  Given the unhinged mood of the GOP base and the cultural extremism of the party’s rising voices, this is just exactly the length of rope they needed to hang themselves…or at least hasten their demographic implosion into a sectional and racial party.  You’d think that they’d be a little more cautious about the optics here, but Thomas de Zengotita makes an interesting suggestion that they just won’t be able to help themselves:

Good old Sonia has a look and style that crypto-racist/sexist elitists hate with a visceral immediacy they may not be able to control…. Good old Sonia doesn’t do half-conscious cultural submission. She just stands up there in all her slightly dumpy glory and says what she thinks. God bless her, the perfect lightning rod. And maybe a good judge as well.

And right on cue, the circus begins:

Michael Goldfarm at the Weekly Standard:

perhaps what’s most striking is that on the issue of diversity, Obama seems to have the views of a 21-year-old Hispanic girl — that is, only by having a black president, an Hispanic justice, a female secretary of State, and Bozo the Clown as vice president will the United States become a true "vanguard of societal ideas and changes."

Cato Institute’s Ilya Shapiro at CNN:

In picking Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has confirmed that identity politics matter to him more than merit. While Judge Sotomayor exemplifies the American Dream, she would not have even been on the short list if she were not Hispanic.

…with a bonus “even the liberal New Republic!” moment:

Moreover, Sotomayor has a mixed reputation among lawyers who have practiced before her, some questioning her abilities as a judicial craftsman, others her erratic temperament, according to a piece by Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic, which itself has come in for criticism.

And of course, here’s the original FAILbot hissing anonymous gossip at TNR:

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren’t penetrating and don’t get to the heart of the issue." (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, "Will you please stop talking and let them talk?")

Even moar Michael Goldfarb at the Weakly Standard:

Does anyone dispute that Sotomayor has been the recipient of preferential treatment for most of her life?

Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin at Politico:

Senators from the GOP, which has suffered from an internal rift over immigration issues and problem-plagued efforts to reach out to Hispanics, will have to decide how directly and sharply they want to attack a Latina single mother whose confirmation to the court is virtually certain.

[Sotomayor doesn’t have any children.]

Rep. Tom Tancredo on MSNBC:

I’m telling you she appears to be a racist. She said things that are racist in any other context. That’s exactly how we would portray it and there’s no one who would get on the Supreme Court saying a thing like that except for a Hispanic woman and you’re going to say it doesn’t matter!

Rush Limbaugh on pills the Rush Limbaugh Show:

Do I want her to fail? Yeah. Do I want her to fail to get on the court? Yes! She’d be a disaster on the court. Do I still want Obama to fail as President? Yeah. AP you getting this? He’s going to fail anyway, but the sooner the better.

Committee for Justice Executive Director Curt Levey on WTOP:

I would point you to the Harriet Miers nomination under the second President Bush. She was also many people felt and intellectual lightweight, picked because she was a woman, people felt. And even though Republicans controlled the senate, she ultimately had to withdraw. And that could happen here. This is someone who clearly was picked because she’s a woman and Hispanic, not because she was the best qualified. I could certainly see red and purple state Democrats gawking at it and she may very well have to withdraw her nomination.

Matt Yglesias provides this helpful chart:

You can click here to listen to Nina Totenberg describe Sotomayor’s outfit at yesterday’s press conference(1:58 in).  Funny, I don’t remember anyone mentioning the color of John Roberts’ tie…

Mike Huckabee:

The appointment of Maria Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama’s campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric. Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the "Extreme Court" that could mark a major shift. The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the "feelings" of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice.

[Sotomayor’s name, of course, is Sonia]

Here’s some delicious insanity from Glenn Beck:

BECK: OK, I have heard that she is — in the 2nd Court of Appeals, that she is almost a bully at times, that she has the image of not being that intellectually bright. I don’t know if this is true or not. This is one — a piece of analysis that I heard today. She’s not that intellectually bright, and she’s almost a bully; she just loves to hear herself talk.

PILON: This is widely held. You can see a piece in The New Republic on May 4th by Jeffrey Rosen, their Supreme Court correspondent, that addresses that issue drawing from a number of Democrats who have clerked and who have known her over the years.

[Even The Liberal New Republic!]

UPDATE:  And the hits just keep on coming!  Here’s the Center for Immigration Studies’ Mark Krikorian at The Corner:

Deferring to people’s own pronunciation of their names should obviously be our first inclination, but there ought to be limits. Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English (which is why the president stopped doing it after the first time at his press conference), unlike my correspondent’s simple preference for a monophthong over a diphthong, and insisting on an unnatural pronunciation is something we shouldn’t be giving in to. 

***

This may seem like carping, but it’s not. Part of our success in assimilation has been to leave whole areas of culture up to the individual, so that newcomers have whatever cuisine or religion or so on they want, limiting the demand for conformity to a smaller field than most other places would. But one of the areas where conformity is appropriate is how your new countrymen say your name, since that’s not something the rest of us can just ignore, unlike what church you go to or what you eat for lunch. And there are basically two options — the newcomer adapts to us, or we adapt to him. And multiculturalism means there’s a lot more of the latter going on than there should be.

Be sure to read the whole thing.  It’s a keeper.