ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style2 { font-size: x-large; } .style3 { text-align: left; } .style4 { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Obama Picks Sotomayor</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright May 28, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style2">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span><span class="style5">T</span>apping 54-year-old Latina federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Associate Supreme Court Justice David Souter, President Barack Obama showed his political savvy, hogtying Republicans who dare to oppose the nomination. In the Nov. 4 election, Obama captured 67% of the Latino vote with former GOP candidate Sen. John McCaian (R-Ariz.) getting only 31%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>GOP opposition to Sotomayor s nomination faces a stiff backlash in next year s midterm elections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Barack went for a proven commodity, already exposed to the rigors of Senate confirmation during her Judiciary Committee vetting in 1997.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Picked originally for the federal bench by former President George H.W. Bush in 1991, former President Bill Clinton tapped her for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sotomayor s faced resistance in1998, realizing she might wind up on the High Court.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Raised in the North Bronx by her widowed mother only minutes from Yankee Stadium, Sotomayor, who grew up in a housing project, graduated in 1972 valedictorian of parochial Cardinal Spellman High, launching her to the Ivy League at Princeton University, where she finished Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>She sailed to Yale Law School where she became editor of the prestigious Law Review Journal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>After graduating Yale Law, she worked under New York County District Attorney Robert Morganthau for five years, prosecuting robberies, assaults and police brutality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sotomayor left the DA in 1984 for private practices, working in corporate law for Pavia and Harcourt in New York City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Three years later, she began her career in public service, appointed by former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo to the board of the N.Y. State Mortgage Agency.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Sotomayor s story, like the man who appointed her, personifies the American Dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Republicans, inside or outside the beltway, ranted about her appointment, finding little traction for their complaints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Sotomayor a  reverse racist for remarks in a 2001 speech, sharing hopes that a  wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn t lived that life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Limbaugh latched onto the sound-bite as proof of her liberal arrogance and judicial activism, two qualities he finds offensive unless it s a GOP judge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I thinks it s terrible, added Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> This is not the kind of tone that any of us want to see when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent, objecting to Limbaugh and Gingrich.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Sotomayor, as Rush and Newt know, was making a facetious point that her personal experience relates more to struggling Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Far too much emphasis has been placed in Sotomayor s Puerto Rican roots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>She was born and raised in the Bronx, not San Juan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Ranting about old sound-bites doesn t emphasize her extraordinary background both academically and personally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Her resume reads like the great American novel, fulfilling a promise attracting millions from foreign soil to come to the Promised Land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Her professional background offers the broadest possible cross section of experience needed to make an outstanding Supreme Court Justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Republican opposition looks mean-spirited, driving more voters from the GOP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When you consider that Sotomayor does little to change the complexion of the Court, it s hard to fathom all the wasted criticism.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Republicans have to pick their battles wisely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Opposing Sotomayor causes more exhaust for the GOP, doing little to advance the Party before next year s midterm elections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Newt and Rush know that Sotomayor does nothing to change the Court&#39;s ideological divide, currently pitting five conservatives against four liberals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Replacing liberal-leaning David Souter with Sotomayor doesn t advance judicial activism or change the High Court s conservative ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Republicans should save their powder when and if Obama gets the chance to replace a conservative jurist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When she meets next fall with the Senate Judiciary Committee, she ll face a lot less opposition than the today s inconsequential grandstanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>GOP insiders know that Sotomayor doesn t change the ideological complexion of the Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Fighting her nomination only has a downside on next year s midterm elections. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Republican opposition to Sotomayor helps Rush or Newt grab some headlines but does very little for the Republican Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele continued his feud with Rush, telling the conservative host, in effect, to stop ragging on Sotomayor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>She possesses all the right stuff to make an outstanding Supreme Court Justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama s pick shows keen political instincts, breaking yet another glass ceiling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Whatever Sotomayor s past remarks, she knows she must show her impartiality and respect for the Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Those questioning her pro-choice leanings shouldn t forget for a second she s fiercely independent and won t sacrifice her autonomy to conservatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Politically she a beautiful doll containing a canister of poison gas:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Break it and you die, said Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan.</p> <p class="style3"> &nbsp;<span class="style4">About the Author</span></p> <p class="style3"> &nbsp;<b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.htnl">Operation Charisma</a>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homene.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>