The Quote That Won't Go Away

One day after President Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his pick for the Supreme Court, critics have latched on to one particular quote from a speech she gave in 2002:

"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 hasn't lived that life."

This single sentence has prompted accusations that Sotomayor is a racist and a bigot, and has surely opened the door for a nationwide discussion on identity politics.

As I chowed through my regular news diet today, I've seen this quote cited in every single article I've read about Sotomayor. Since her confirmation won't happen until August, I think the fury over this quote should die down eventually, but at some point Sotomayor is going to have to explain what she meant when she said this. However, even when she does finally get the chance to elaborate on her statement, I don't think she will be able mollify the "imagine if this was a white man making these statements" crowd.

Sotomayor ruled against Abortion groups

So says CBN

The big questions now are: will groups like NARAL and NOW push the issue and possibly derail a liberal appointment from the left? Will this muzzle some Conservative groups and deny them some red-meat arguments? Will it even be an issue as the white house presses for quick confirmation?

Anyway, read the link, it's a fascinating analysis from the mainstream religious right and will definitely be brought up by Democrats during her hearings.

White House couldn't have asked for better timing

The announcement today of Sonia Sotomayor for Associate Justice of The Supreme Court could, in reality, have not come at a better time for the Obama administration.
After North Korea received international criticism for it's nuclear detonation and subsequent missile test this weekend it looked like the news cycle was going to be consumed with questions on Obama's National Security cred as well as ample 'what-if' scenarios.
Instead news agencies are pumping their juices at maximum to get the latest details, tidbits and reactions from both sides of the aisle in an attempt to try and frame how the confirmation debate is going to play out for the public and on the Senate floor.
the White House also gets a bit of a bonus in the fact that congress is currently not in session and many of the key conservative reactions have come from right-leaning interest groups and think tanks instead of from an organized press conference on the steps of the capitol. For now though it appears that the Sotomayor dog has yet to bark, at least amongst the highest echelons of Republican politics. Many GOP Senators and Representatives are tentatively carrying out a "wait and see" approach, not wanting to seem overtly hostile to the nation's first hispanic nominee, but at the same time not seeming to want to abandon their base, which is ready to draw the knives and prepare for a drawn out idealogical battle.
Another interesting story that seems to have been buried today is that Obama, who will be heading out to Europe to commemorate World War 2 anniversaries and give a major speech in Cairo, Egypt will also be visiting Saudi Arabia. A move the White House has successfully downplayed due to the flap over Obama allegedly 'bowing' to it's leader King Abdullah during their last meeting.

Obama nominates Sotomayor

President Obama announced Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his pick for Supreme Court justice to replace retiring Justice David Souter. If confirmed, Sotomayor will be the first hispanic supreme court justice and the third woman to serve on the bench. At this time the GOP is not anticipating to attempt a filibuster Sotomayor's confirmation because they don't have enough votes to push it through and the conservative/liberal balance of the court will remain unchanged. GOP Chair Michael Steele issued a statement today saying that the GOP intended to keep an open mind until her career as a judge has been further vetted, and for now the conservative reaction to Sotomayor's nomination has been mostly just lukewarm.

Over the next few weeks as the public gets to know more about Sotomayor, I think we should expect to see some public criticism surrounding controversial statements she made with regard to how her ethnicity and gender influence her point of view as a judge. However, I don't think anyone is expecting her confirmation to go haywire like Harriet Meyers' did a few years ago.

Democrats concede on Gunatanamo, stand behnd Pelosi

Senate Democrats delivered a setback to the White House on Guantanamo Bay, which has been a signature issue for the administration, and was one of Obama's first achievements after taking office. After dems received harsh criticism for the past 3 months by Republicans who claim that once the detention facility is closed, hundreds of dangerous terrorists will be released into every American's backyard.
Yesterday the Senate Appropriations Committee, as well as senior Senate leadership, voted to strip some $80 million in funding for the closing of the controversial detention from a $93 Billion war supplemental that glided through both houses.
Congerssional Democrats defended themselves by saying that the President left them no choice, by closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility without specifying a plan as to where these detainees would go, he left them vulnerable on National Security, and passing the funding would've dropped a golden egg in the lap of Republicans, desperate to find additional issues to cling too for the 2010 midterm elections next year.
Also, despite mounting pressure from the right on Nancy Pelosi to come clean from her giant mismanagement of statements on the CIA over the past couple of weeks, her top allies in her own caucus, as well as other powerful allies in the White House have not backed down from their support.
Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner has used the flap to his own advantage and continues to beat the drum on a daily basis, calling on Pelosi to "put up or shut up" on the controversial statements she made. Shoring up support amongst his own members as well as trying to kneecap the powerful speaker when she is at her most vulnerable.

Obama Toughens Up Regulations on Fuel Efficiency

Today President Obama announced new nationwide rules for auto emissions and fuel-efficiency standards. These rules fall in line with California's long-disputed attempt to toughen auto standards on a statewide level. The new rules will take effect in 2012 and will require cars and light truck fleets to be 40 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016.

While it was no surprise that environmentalist groups welcomed the change, the US auto industry is finally embracing the California-style standards for the first time since the state introduced the plan in 2002. With GM and Chrysler on their knees right now, they aren't in much of a position to pick a fight with the federal government. And since US car companies are getting out-sold by foreign competitors, the new standards might be the swift kick they need to change to manufacturing the smaller, more efficient cars that consumers have turned to in recent years.

Obama reaches out to moderate Republicans

A smart story in Politico shows that Obama has been quitely working on a small scale to try and woo moderate GOP house members to his side on health care reform. His efforts to reach out to Republicans in the past have largely failed on almost every major initiative where it was tried, so instead of large public displays of interest in bipartisanship with the President visiting the capitol, that are then seen as wholesale failures when Republican votes are scarce. Obama has tacked a new course: find a few moderate voices within the Republican party that may be open to your point of view and invite them over to the White House to try and frame a debate they can contribute too.
Although the administration admits getting any Republican support for his health care reform plan is going to be a stretch, especially when the GOP rank and file face daunting political pressures as further conservative factions within the party threaten to make looming primary fights inevitable. Contributing even slightly to the grand health care debate could serve to simply pad the resume for any house member, Republican or Democrat, that wants to give it's respective district some substance.
The Administration also made news this weekend when it brought another moderate Republican into it's tent and made Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Ambassador to China, a clever and calculated move that left tongues wagging in the Washington punditocracy and created endless speculation about Huntsman's own possible presidential ambitions in '12 or '16.
Although I am of the opinion that no candidate who accepted such a generous political appointment in the opposition parties administration, would be able to survive a crowded primary of his own party. Especially as he tried to denounce the policies of the administration he served in to please "the base" voters that generally turn up in primary elections. (It would be like John Kerry or Hillary Clinton accepting the same position in the Bush administration and then running a campaign based solely on opposition to that same administration's policies)
Whether it is intentional or not, Obama continues to create the illusion of a "collapse" at the Republican center, overseeing what appears to be the growing of his own party at the sake of absorbing the moderate wing of his opposition, a win-win scenario that burnishes his own bipartisan credentials, while at the same time sending the GOP more into "the wilderness," causing them to rely on more and more conservative voices that are out of step with the American mainstream.