Soothing Speech from Sonia Sotomayor

The lead article in today’s New York Times is titled, “Republicans Press Judge About Bias and Activism.” It describes the hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.  The Republicans questioned Judge Sotomayor regarding her statement about a “wise Latina women,” her judicial philosophy and her temprament. According to the article, there was little new ground broken, and the hearings were uneventful.

It’s also worthwhile to note that aside from Senator Sessions of Alabama, most of the Republicans were extremely deferential towards the judge, an attitude the Times attributes to a desire not to alienate the increasingly powerful Hispanic voting bloc.

In my opinion, these hearings seem to be particularly uninteresting because they are largely staged. We all know what each side is going to say and the anticipated responses. It’s almost like the Judiciary Committee is just going through the motions. This may be due, in some part, to the supermajority of 60 votes now commanded by the Democrats in the Senate.

If only the Democrats would wake up and realize the possibilities of this supermajority on other issues as well. It’s like they have been cowering before the manipulation of George W. Bush for so long, they have forgotten how to lead, even on issues like a public component to national healthcare, a stand favored by the vast majority of the American people. Of course, that’s another blog post.