Sam Alito — soft-spoken. John Roberts — affable and soft-spoken. Sanda Day O’Connor, Ruther Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, all of them, soft-spoken. This nominee’s more like Judge Bork. She has a temper. She has an attitude. She could come across as hubristic in the hearings, as arrogant. And so she could Bork herself. It’s very possible.
And you'll never guess where he got this idea: “I’ve read Jeff Rosen’s piece ["The Case Against Sotomayor"],” he said, “and that’s what I’m going on. I haven’t met the lady.” Look, I know that liberals tend to bash TNR quite a bit. I understand that--the magazine often tends toward the wankerish side of things. Nevertheless, they generally do an excellent job, especially with respect to their blogs. But they really bollixed this up. The Rosen piece ought to have never been published, and after publication, after it became clear what was going on, the magazine ought to have retracted it and issues Judge Sotomayor an apology. But they hunkered down, so here we are--just as everyone predicted, the article has been used as fodder for right-wingers to slam Sotomayor. Nice work, liberals!
Seriously, between the GOP's obsessive quest for total loyalty at all times and the Democrats' complete fractiousness at all times, there has to be some sort of workable middle ground. I'm a Democrat but I'm well aware of the problems--historic, endemic ones--with my particular party. With Republicans, loyalty--being a good foot soldier--is a cherished commodity. With Democrats, it's independence and iconoclasm. Hence congresspeople already trying to weasel out of supporting President Obama's call for Israel to keep its own word on settlements. For a lot of these folks, I'm sure it never occurred to them to support Obama because it's the right thing to do. It's all about showing their independence, generating some headlines, maybe getting a little pat on the back from AIPAC or whatever. It's partly a problem of traditionally weak leadership among Democrats but in a greater sense it's a function of a Democratic Party that's still, in large part, left over from the Clinton years of triangulation in which the Democrats' motto seemed to be, in the words of a fictitious campaign manager, "Please. Don't. Hurt. Me." Even now they're cowering when Obama wants to close Gitmo, shaking under the weight of the now-impotent Republican message machine. I mean, really, it's a new meme every day with them, and none of them has come even remotely close to sticking. And yet the likes of Harry Reid are deathly afraid of that nexus. If Obama wanted to leave a real legacy for his country, he could start by purging the Democratic Party of its, for lack of a better term, lame wing and recruit actual people of conviction. This isn't necessarily even about ideological purity. Aside from Obama, there aren't many Democrats out there that really make my proud of my party affiliation. I'm a fan of Nancy Pelosi, but she's not exactly the public figure type--she's a great backroom type, though.
In any event, Miranda's comment can safely be ignored as borderline racist. Sotomayor's one public appearance was classy and restrained (she seemed endearingly shy), and she'll no doubt be able to control herself in confirmation hearings--the stereotype of the sassy Latina being just that (you have to love the self-loathing minorities that the GOP finds--people like Miranda and Steele who are more than willing to mount racist or near-racist attacks on the hope that their race will excuse them). It's ultimately far more likely that the GOP's activist corps will be completely unable to control itself, and thus self-Bork with Hispanics. What I find fascinating is how Miranda--who apparently was fired for unethical actions from the Bush Administration--still manages to have a job in the conservative movement. Being fired because of an ethical violation by the Bushies is like Ozzy Osbourne being canned by Black Sabbath for doing too many drugs. Just how much do you have to do...how badly must you screw up?...And even that's not enough to get him excommunicated from the wingularity. Sometimes, I wonder what an honorable, sane, and genuinely conservative Republican Party would look like. I also wonder what a conviction-centered Democratic Party might look like. I don't suppose I'll ever know.
