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Repeat Offender

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I was away from my desk for much of yesterday, so even though my boss excitedly told me that Obama would be announcing his nominee for the Supreme Court yesterday morning, I still didn’t see it until later that afternoon.  Judge Sotomayor’s name is vaguely familiar to me (I think perhaps I’ve read one of her decisions somewhere, but I can’t say where), but beyond that and what the NBC Evening News last night and Morning Edition on NPR this morning had to say about her, that’s the extent of my knowledge of the nominee.  


And then I sat down for lunch here and thought I’d at least skim through the news while I ate my soup.  This was the first story on the MSNBC ticker on MSN:

GOP faces delicate task in fighting Latina pick

All-out assault on Sotomayor could alienate Hispanic and women voters

President Obama nominated federal judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court yesterday, putting her in line to become the nation’s first Hispanic justice and creating a difficult political equation for Republicans as they weigh how aggressively to fight her appointment.

An all-out assault on Sotomayor by Republicans could alienate both Latino and women voters, deepening the GOP’s problems after consecutive electoral setbacks. But sidestepping a court battle could be deflating to the party’s base and hurt efforts to rally conservatives going forward.
In introducing Sotomayor at the White House yesterday morning, Obama hailed the 54-year-old appeals court judge as an accomplished and “inspiring” individual with a compelling life story. She would replace Justice David H. Souter, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush but became a reliable member of the court’s liberal wing.

Senate Republicans responded with restraint to the announcement yesterday, and their largely muted statements stood in sharp contrast to the fractious partisanship that has defined court battles in recent decades. Leading conservatives outside the Senate, however, did not hold back, targeting a pair of speeches in which Sotomayor said appellate courts are where “policy is made” and another in which she said a Latina would often “reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
Critics also targeted her support for affirmative action, with Rush Limbaugh calling her a “reverse racist” in his syndicated radio program, citing a case in which she ruled against a group of white firefighters who claimed discrimination in hiring practices. 
 There is obviously more in the link; I’ve only highlighted the first couple of paragraphs.  But it’s the headline and the insinuation in those early paragraphs that have my back up.

To suggest, as reporters Shailagh Murray and Michael D. Shear do, that Republicans face a choice of either opposing Sotomayor and “alienat[ing] both Latino and women voters” or conceding Sotomayor’s confirmation and staying in those voters’ good graces, is, I feel, both a naive and bipolar view of politics in general and this nomination in particular.  It’s also more than a little offensive — and I say that as a Democrat.  It assumes that identity politics — your race, gender, creed, what have you — is far more important than, say, a judge’s positions or temperament.  It assumes that any nominee who is the member of a minority should or may enjoy some special protection in that nomination process as a result.  It assumes that voters themselves are stupid, and are unable to distinguish between a legitimate question regarding a nominee’s record or ideas and their basic identity — and thereby willing to punish anyone who dares question their nominee.  
It is, in short, an offensive and undemocratic notion.  And it’s in the Washington Post, stated almost as if it were the Conventional Wisdom of the political class — which is odd, since nowhere in the entire piece does it quote anyone who suggests that the GOP will feel the wrath of women or Hispanic voters if they oppose the nomination.  The closest they get is Chuck Schumer, warning the GOP to oppose Sotomayor “at their peril” but never really saying why that’s so.

So that’s my complaint for the day.   It seems like it’s the same things we talk about year after year: can we, for once, have a discussion about politics and law without someone polarizing the positions into two camps and then treating it like it was Wrestlemania XIV?