Unplugged: Reaction to the Sotomayor Hearing
The start of Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings today marked an opportunity for Democrats to defend President Obama's nomination and Republicans to attack the nomination based on information that has been released so far.
On today's episode of Washington Unplugged, CBS News political consultant John Dickerson sat down with a group political analysts to discuss the first day of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearings.
While Democrats focused solely on her judicial records, Republicans have been highlighting speeches and instances from her life.
CBS Supreme Court correspondent Wyatt Andrews said that the GOP's focus on speeches shows that the Republicans "don't have the ammunition" to fight her judicial records. Additionally, he noted that a lot of Republicans have actually praised her and some are likely to vote in her favor.
Stuart Taylor, a senior writer at National Journal, notes that, while Andrews' argument echoes Democratic sentiment, Republicans are nevertheless continuing this tactic, asking "what will happen when nobody's in charge but her?"
The group also addressed Sotomayor's ability to empathize, her "wise latina" comment, and the probability of her confirmation. CBS News' Nancy Cordes also discussed the CIA controversy circulating around former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Joining Dickenson were Taylor, Andrews, CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, Republican Lawyers Association representative Cleta Mitchell, and Legal Director of the Alliance for Justice Bill Yeomans. You can watch the full espisode above.
On today's episode of Washington Unplugged, CBS News political consultant John Dickerson sat down with a group political analysts to discuss the first day of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearings.
While Democrats focused solely on her judicial records, Republicans have been highlighting speeches and instances from her life.
CBS Supreme Court correspondent Wyatt Andrews said that the GOP's focus on speeches shows that the Republicans "don't have the ammunition" to fight her judicial records. Additionally, he noted that a lot of Republicans have actually praised her and some are likely to vote in her favor.
Stuart Taylor, a senior writer at National Journal, notes that, while Andrews' argument echoes Democratic sentiment, Republicans are nevertheless continuing this tactic, asking "what will happen when nobody's in charge but her?"
The group also addressed Sotomayor's ability to empathize, her "wise latina" comment, and the probability of her confirmation. CBS News' Nancy Cordes also discussed the CIA controversy circulating around former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Joining Dickenson were Taylor, Andrews, CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, Republican Lawyers Association representative Cleta Mitchell, and Legal Director of the Alliance for Justice Bill Yeomans. You can watch the full espisode above.
His statement made it clear that the founding fathers made an error of ommision in forming our government. They placed no check or balance on the power of the judicial branch of government. They did not put into place a procedure whereby a judge who no longer is faithful to the constitution could be removed from office.
Now with Sotomayor we see the consequences. A racist is about to be appointed to the highest court in the land. She will say whatever is politically expedient to get her appointment. That's why this confirmation hearing is a joke. Once on the bench, however, the law will be what SHE says it is and there will be nothing anybody can do about it. There will be no way to remove her from the bench when it becomes obvious that she will try to use her position to 'get even' with certain segments of the population that she feels that her or anybody else's particular 'group' has a grievance against.
We elected a socialist to the presidency - an individual with a history of identifying with groups who hate America and some of its people. We also gave his party a majority in Congress and they are relishing their new power, blinding following their leader just like the Rupublicans blindly followed their leader into an insane war and a financial nightmare. We will now have to live with the consequences. We can only hope that Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas will outlive this socialist's presidency. And we can only hope that Kennedy will finally wise up, as he did in joining the majority in overturning Sotomayor's racist ruling in Connecticut(?), and help to restore our country back to our constitutionally limited government.
It will also be interesting to compare this confirmation charade to the hatchet job the Democrats did on Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. And it will also be interesting to compare the trite answers and the canned speeches this racist judicial lightweight gives compared to the intellect and dignity of Bork and the honesty and courage of Thomas.