Monday, July 13, 2009

Confirmation Hearing For Sotomayor Begin

Today was the first day of Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. There was no questions and answer, only opening statements. You can read the full text of all of the Senator's opening statements at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/07/sotomayor-hearing-senator-statement-texts.html. There was nothing that surprising. The Democrats praised her while the republicans expressed concerns while admitting she would likely be confirmed.

This is Sotomayor's opening statement (from http://thirdbranch.crooksandliars.com/big-tent-democrat/judge-sotomayors-opening-statem-1).



Full text at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/13/text-sotomayors-opening-statement.

Chris Matthews (MSNBC) got another "thrill" up his leg (video at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/07/13/msnbcs_matthews_gets_thrill_over_sotomayor_hearing.html).

Latino interest groups announced they would be watching closely for signs of racism (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/SoniaSotomayor/story?id=8065668&page=1). As pointed out by http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/13/sotomayor-day-1-hispanics-promise-lots-of-scrutiny-of-gop; "Miguel Estrada was nominated to the DC Appellate Court by George Bush in 2001, and got filibustered by Democrats in 2003.  The reason for their opposition was explicitly racist, as this memo to Senator Dick Durbin in 2001 shows:
...
Democrats explicitly opposed Estrada because he was Latino. Do you remember the huge outcry this created from these Hispanic interest groups at the time this memo got revealed, and how they protested Democratic racism and bigotry?
"

The 'Joe the Plumber' treatment has begun against Ricci; "The widespread criticism of Sonia Sotomayor's dismissal of the New Haven firefighters' claims must have struck a chord: Slate's Dahlia Lithwick has published an attempted character assassination of Frank Ricci, the namesake plaintiff of the infamous Ricci case.



Lithwick's move isn't surprising -- she's a reliable left-wing partisan. What's particularly amusing, though, is that the McClatchy newswire already has blown her cover, by reporting that People for the American Way has been urging writers to attack Frank Ricci on precisely the grounds cited by Lithwick. Lithwick obviously did little more than take a PFAW press release, reword it, and run it under her own name.

" (http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/07/people_for_the_chicago_way.asp).

Tomorrow is when it should get interesting.

Past Sotomayor posts:
Berman Post: Supreme Court Justice David Souter Will Retire
Berman Post: Obama Comments On Supreme Court Justice David Souter's Retirement
Berman Post: Specter's Defection May Hurt Obama in Picking a New Supreme Court Justice
Berman Post: ObamasFrontrunners.com
Berman Post: Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor For Supreme Court Justice
Berman Post: Is Sotomayor a Racist?
Berman Post: When Life Experience Apparently Matters (in Politics)
Berman Post: Harry Reid on Sotomayor - "She's Written Hundreds And Hundreds of Opinions. I Haven't Read a Single One of Them"
Berman Post: Sotomayor Made Other Sexist Comments
Berman Post: Aide To Sotomayor - "Don't Answer Any Questions", Sotomayor to Aide - "I Know"
Berman Post: Sotomayor Was a Member of La Raza For Six Years
Berman Post: Sotomayor's Senior Thesis
Berman Post: Sotomayor Repeatedly Made 'Wise Latino Woman' Statements
Berman Post: Sotomayor Questionnaire Omits Death Penalty Memo, Said Death Penalty Is Racist
Berman Post: Sotomayor And Liberalism (She Said She Does Not Know What Liberalism is After Calling Herself One)
Berman Post: Does Sotomayor's Past Shows a Propensity to be Swept Away by Radical Causes or Theories That Relate to Her Identity?
Berman Post: Sotomayor Fractures Her Ankle
Berman Post: Confirmation Hearings For Sotomayor Start July 13
Berman Post: Sotomayor - "I Am A Product Of Affirmative Action"
Berman Post: 300 New Boxes of Sotomayor's Work Discovered
Berman Post: Sotomayor's Ricci Decision Overruled by The Supreme Court
Berman Post: Public Support For Sotomayor Slipping
Berman Post: Sotomayor Helped Bork Bork
Berman Post: Tax 'Issues' For Sotomayor?
Berman Post: Sotomayor Supporters Trying to Smear Ricci
Berman Post: Public Support For Sotomayor Second-Lowest For a Supreme Court Nominee in 20 Year

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