I must have been pseudo watching CNN last week, as I recall hearing words like "racist" and "KKK" and Sotomayor in the same phrase. I didn't think much of it at the time. Then, I read an article of my friend's (click here to read it) and it made me a bit more curious as to what was going on. Then, this morning as I watched Meet the Press, David Gregory had Senators Sessions and Leahy on to discuss the accusations by Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich that Sotomayor would provide a racially biased view to the Supreme Court. A video clip of Limbaugh showed him saying that she is a Racist and equated her to David Duke, the former head of the KKK.
From Rush Limbaugh's Radio Show:
"She brings a form of bigotry or racism to the court. I don't care, we're not supposed to say it, we're supposed to pretend it didn't happen. We're supposed to look at, at other things. But it's the elephant in the room. The real question here that needs to be asked, and nobody on our side, from a columnist to a TV commentator to anybody in our party has the guts to ask: How can a president nominate such a candidate, and how can a party get behind such a candidate? That's what would be asked if somebody were foolish enough to nominate David Duke or pick somebody even less offensive."
When asked if he felt it was inappropriate for conservatives to make these claims, Senator Sessions seemed reluctant to come out and say "yes" even though he clearly felt that it was inappropriate and strongly disagreed with the claim.
From NBC's Meet the Press:
DAVID GREGORY: Calling her racist, a reverse racist, comparing her to David Duke. Do you think that's appropriate?
SEN. SESSIONS: I don't think I'm going to use any such words as that. I read her speech. I'm troubled by her speech. I think she has an opportunity to explain that. And I don't think we--that I'm going to use such loaded words. People on the outside can say what they choose to say.
DAVID GREGORY: But wait, but do you make a judgment about that? Do you think they're appropriate?
SEN. SESSIONS: I don't think those are words...
DAVID GREGORY: You think that's fair?
SEN. SESSIONS: ...that I would use. And I don't think--I don't--they would not be words that I would use.
DAVID GREGORY: Right.
Are conservatives that scared of Rush Limbaugh? Is he really the voice of this party? I can't believe that the GOP is looking to a radio personality for affirmation of political affairs.
All this comes from a speech back in 2001 at UC Berkley when she said that her life experience and upbringing should have an effect on her decisions.
From Sotomayor's UC Berkley Speech:
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who wasn't lived that life. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what the difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage."
Whats wrong with this? Do people who think this is an issue really believe that the foundation of American politics and law have not been biased by a White male view? Do people not understand or see the passive aggressive racism behind Limbaugh's comments? I agree that decisions should not be based on a biased view of your own reality, but I do understand (and most people do) that one's experiences and past successes/downfalls will certainly affect a decision and perspective of a situation. If they want a group of Justices that vote with no bias, then they will need to clone each one and remove them from any distractions... but then again, which Justices would pass human cloning into law?
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