U.S. President Barack Obama arrives with Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor (R), his choice as the nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, at the East Room of the White House in Washington May 26, 2009. (Reuters)President Barack Obama selected the first Latina and third woman to the Supreme Court Tuesday, picking Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace outgoing Justice David Souter. Glen Greenwald at Salon gives a run down of who’s for Sotomayor and what critics have said about her. (Greenwald is for Obama picking Sotomayor).
Greenwald praised the president for what he saw as ignoring the caterwauling of those who would assume that a diverse court is an inferior one. To critics who would question Sotomayor’s qualifications, Greenwald points out that, “Sotomayor’s ascent from Bronx housing project to Princeton and Yale Law School to Supreme Court nominee — driven by merit, intellect, talent and diligence — is nothing short of inspiring.”
It is very encouraging that Obama ignored the ugly, vindictive, and anonymous smear campaign led by TheNew Republic‘s JeffreyRosen and his secret cast of cowardly Eminent LiberalLegal Scholars of the Respectable Intellectual Center. People like that, engaging in tactics of that sort, have exerted far too much influence on our political culture for far too long, andObama’s selection of one of their most recent targets both reflects and advances the erosion of their odious influence. And Obama’s choice is also a repudiation of the Jeffrey-Rosen/Ben-Wittes/Stuart–Taylor grievance on behalf of white males that, as Dahlia Lithwick put it, “a diverse bench must inevitably be a second-rate bench.”
I’m happy for Sotomayor, but I think those who would waste a ton of time opposing the pick are truly misguided. Justice Souter was a Liberal and he’s being replaced by another Liberal judge. The make up of the court would remain unchanged with four moderate Liberals and four conservatives and one swing justice in Kennedy. The fight would look very petty and pointless considering Obama’s second choice is probably … shock o’ shocks … another moderate-to-Liberal justice. As long as her closet isn’t full of tax problems, sexual harassment lawsuits and other maladies, they don’t really have the votes to stop a damn thing.
If I were a Republican, I’d just keep attacking Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. I can’t stand both their asses, so I wouldn’t cry a river of tears if the Republicans were able to embarrass either of them into stepping down.
Do me a favor, righties!
Live Your Best Life. 
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