Sweet: Graham makes Sotomayor squirm over “wise Latina” nonsense
posted at 6:30 pm on July 14, 2009 by Allahpundit
The money bit comes between 14:45 and 17:45 when he forces her to confront the egregious double standard in what she said but I’m giving you the full half-hour interrogation just because it’s that good. CNN’s analysts were raving afterwards about what an expert cross-examination it was but I’m struck less by the substance than the tone, with Graham lapsing in and out of his genial southern gentleman routine to land some withering shots. (Right at the beginning, he mocks her shameless lying about empathy by saying, “I listened to you today, I think I’m listening to Judge Roberts.”) The highlight comes at 7:30, when he goes out of his way to tell her how much he likes her personally — before dredging up lawyers’ comments about what a bully she is on the bench. Well played, counselor.
It’s not all about tone, though. There’s little to be gained politically for the GOP in the hearing so Graham, very shrewdly, seems to be using it as an opportunity to lay down markers for the next time a GOP nominee comes up for confirmation. Note well what he says about giving people who’ve misspoken a second chance. He’s bound to remind the Democrats of that in defense of some Republican at a future date.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »
I watched it while it was happening and even though I love to rag on the dude, Graham was really quite good today.
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Graham has impressed me in these hearings. I’m disappointed he was so lackluster during the election, but maybe lawyering and crossing are his real fortes, and not so much the campaigning.
Patrick on July 14, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Ha. That was hardly squirming. She stayed as cool as a cucumber in front of the closet queen. I loved when she dressed down Sen. Kyl for not even saying “hello” or “good afternoon” before he started in on questions. The look on his face was priceless.
dcwvu on July 14, 2009 at 6:34 PM
Bigot.
DrSteve on July 14, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Class act, as always.
Chuck Schick on July 14, 2009 at 6:37 PM
You got your ass kicked just about every day growing up didn’t you?? Or are we still in the middle of the process??
BigWyo on July 14, 2009 at 6:39 PM
I watched this also. I was suprised graham did a fairly good job. Soto seemed to not know how to answer on some issues. I have not seen her answer on the 2nd. If she did, how did she do?
L
letget on July 14, 2009 at 6:39 PM
On DKos they’re going apoplectic because Sessions mentioned in passing that some judge was “also Puerto Rican ancestry.”
Apparently it’s perfectly fine to talk about a wise Latina being a better judge than a white male, but to talk about a wise Latino judge who had a different opinion than Sotomayor on something is some horribly racist gaffe. Only Republicans can be racist, after all!
evergreen on July 14, 2009 at 6:40 PM
The only thing that’s in the closet is the real Sotomayor.
toliver on July 14, 2009 at 6:41 PM
Dems will never reciprocate to anything Repubs give them in these hearings. To the Dems, blood rules.
BrianA on July 14, 2009 at 6:41 PM
Cha-ching!
__________________________
He can remind them, but they won’t listen…two words: Thomas, Estrada…
cmsinaz on July 14, 2009 at 6:42 PM
Ya, and I guess that she was not squirming when Sen. Jeff Sessions was questioning her.
Johan Klaus on July 14, 2009 at 6:43 PM
We will have to look at this lady forever. Let her squirm a little now.
RobCon on July 14, 2009 at 6:44 PM
In Utopia there will be no Senate hearings. Duma hearings, maybe. But, even then, the Politburo will make things moot.
We will have Comrade Judges in the future.
Onward, Utopia.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 14, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Dollars to donuts he votes to confirm her anyway.
thomasaur on July 14, 2009 at 6:44 PM
The NRA website has the run down on her answers so far.
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 6:44 PM
I was hoping Graham would call her Ma’am.
portlandon on July 14, 2009 at 6:45 PM
This is a characteristic of the South in general and of South Carolina specifically: one typically leads a harsh criticism of someone with a small bit of niceness. For example, “Bless her heart, she can’t help it she’s a pathetic excuse for an appellate judge.”
LastRick on July 14, 2009 at 6:45 PM
I still say her responses were all canned or scripted. I would like to hear her when the lights and cameras are not on. The real judge is what we get after she is confirmed.
fourdeucer on July 14, 2009 at 6:45 PM
You should have heard PMSNBC, they had quite a different take than CNN. Douche Shuster and Tamron were all sorts of negative about Graham.
Chris Tingle spent loads of time on persecuting Cheney. These are times having the media in the tank helps. I am sure all the unemployed people will find massive comfort in the notion Dems are going after Cheney for trying to kill Al Queda.
msmveritas on July 14, 2009 at 6:47 PM
I have to admit that I haven’t been following the Sotomayor hearings, but every time I walk by the TV, I overhear a rich, privileged white male with a pronounced southern twang grilling Judge Sotomayor about issues of race and class.
Oh how history and posterity will laugh and laugh at the Republicans. More than you could possibly imagine.
ckoeber on July 14, 2009 at 6:50 PM
Great. We have to look forward to more of grahmnesty. The longer he is there to help the enemy the more likely there will NEVER be another conservative put on the supreme court. lindsey has just taken over the role specter used to play. schumer probably wrote the script for him today.
peacenprosperity on July 14, 2009 at 6:52 PM
I see that you’ve now entered the post-genitalia-self-awareness stage of adolescence.
Potty training is going to be easy. Don’t be nervous.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 14, 2009 at 6:53 PM
Senator Graham did a great job! She looked confused…and prepped by barry’s team!
WhatsRight on July 14, 2009 at 6:54 PM
NICE!
LOL I love it when he asks her (before he finds his notes) to recite what she said. And you just see her sitting there going DOH!
But as I listened the 9/11 account was faked and she was just making it up as she goes…. there was no remorse or care it seemed.
upinak on July 14, 2009 at 6:55 PM
This wise latino senses a wise latina meltdown coming…
elduende on July 14, 2009 at 6:56 PM
Checked out the predicted unemployment numbers lately?
a capella on July 14, 2009 at 6:57 PM
I’m curious what is your race and gender?
terryannonline on July 14, 2009 at 6:58 PM
He did make her squirm. Good job Senator Graham. Good job. Penetrating questions
ted c on July 14, 2009 at 6:58 PM
Oh how history and posterity will laugh and laugh at the Republicans. More than you could possibly imagine.
ckoeber on July 14, 2009 at 6:50 PM
You have to have sense before you can Make sense.
fourdeucer on July 14, 2009 at 6:58 PM
For being so wonderfully post-racial and enlightened, liberals are strangely fixated on race. Your notice of the questioners being “white males” and Sotomayor’s characterization of white males as being less fit to judge than a Latina, are racist judgments according to your own paranoid worldview, but that fact goes right over your heads. History is going to laugh at you for being such hypocrites.
Ah well, might as well make history now. You’re such flamin’ hypocrites- LOL!
evergreen on July 14, 2009 at 6:59 PM
Wow, she was gobsmacked at that stuff Graham brought up. Mouth wide open, nothing coming out. Ouch.
Seixon on July 14, 2009 at 6:59 PM
I don’t get it, what did you mean by this term?
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 6:59 PM
ckoebe, you have NOTHING to bother us with! no weapon…no words…nothing! Barry is doing a great job in getting Consevatives back into power! :))
WhatsRight on July 14, 2009 at 6:59 PM
I will lay 1,000 pesos to 1 taco that Graham will vote for her.
Joe Bloggs on July 14, 2009 at 7:00 PM
This will be the first and last time Sen. Graham will ever be accused of penetrating a woman.
dcwvu on July 14, 2009 at 7:01 PM
Has really bought into the Post Obama AmeriKa!! Hook, line..retard…
BigWyo on July 14, 2009 at 7:02 PM
elduende on July 14, 2009 at 6:56 PM
Yeah, did I hear him referring to her “wise Latino” comments?
cs89 on July 14, 2009 at 7:02 PM
The last time you were near a vagina was the day you were born.
And, remember, you know longer have to be fixated on your genitalia.
Potty training awaits.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 14, 2009 at 7:03 PM
*no
OhEssYouCowboys on July 14, 2009 at 7:03 PM
Graham is just tryin to look good in front of the bigots. Remember that remark he made. He’s dead to me.
Oil Can on July 14, 2009 at 7:03 PM
In a world chock full of half-wits, you stand out:
Lindsay Graham:
“”Graham was born in Central, South Carolina, where his father, Florence James Graham, owned a liquor store.
After graduating from high school, Graham became the first member of his family to attend college and joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps.
When he was 21 his mother died, and his father died 15 months later. Because he and his sister were now left orphaned, the service allowed Graham to attend University of South Carolina in Columbia so he could be near home and care for his sister, whom he adopted.“”
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:04 PM
Sen. Graham: “Can you recite it from memory”
Sotomayor:
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
RR
ramrants on July 14, 2009 at 7:04 PM
And the Democrats have ever made a good-faith attempt at fairness with respect to GOP nominees when? Graham is welcome to play his game of chess, and you are correct in lauding him for good play, but it will hardly make a difference.
Kasparov lost fair and square to Deep Blue. He did not lose fair and square to Putin. Graham’s good play will net him about as much.
spmat on July 14, 2009 at 7:05 PM
Bishop nuked the child. Move along, there’s nothing left to see.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 14, 2009 at 7:05 PM
So a SCOTUS nominee can only be questioned by poor, underprivileged non-white females?
But aren’t all Senators privileged?
jazz_piano on July 14, 2009 at 7:06 PM
Terribly distracted today, but when I caught the pic of Graham on TV, I HOPED he’d actually let loose.
Glad to learn he was good today.. whew.
pambi on July 14, 2009 at 7:07 PM
Typical hate filled lefty.
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 7:07 PM
Uh, she’s rich and privileged as well. She’s just not white.
spmat on July 14, 2009 at 7:07 PM
Using logic on a Socialist is as pointless as trying to teach calculus to a flounder.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 14, 2009 at 7:07 PM
OOoops!!
That’s all folks!!!
BigWyo on July 14, 2009 at 7:08 PM
Here is a short synopsis on Jeff Sessions, one of Graham’s “privileged” white male cohorts.. You will of course notice that Sessions also grew up with a compound in Hyannisport and a $100 million dollar trust fund waiting for him:
“”Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama, to Abbie Powe and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Jr.
His father owned a general store and then a farm equipment dealership. Sessions grew up in the small town of Hybart. In 1964 he became an Eagle Scout.
In his adult life, he became a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He was also an army reservist in the 1970s, achieving the rank of captain.
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:08 PM
Does getting admitted to Princeton based on race, when you can’t get in on merit, qualify someone as privileged?
jazz_piano on July 14, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Kudos to Lindsey Graham. He was effective.
jencab on July 14, 2009 at 7:11 PM
If you keep that up, you’re gonna get a nasty phone call from some one’s mother!!!
BigWyo on July 14, 2009 at 7:11 PM
“Say it to me.”
Fugging AWE. SOME. !!!
Abby Adams on July 14, 2009 at 7:12 PM
OMG! Grahamnesty has apparently grown a set! A small set, to be sure, but a set nonetheless.
sondiehl on July 14, 2009 at 7:14 PM
I guess I’m not entitled to an opinion about any of this because my race and gender disqualify me.
/sarc
jazz_piano on July 14, 2009 at 7:15 PM
LOL, like that’ll matter. We play by nice rules, Dems don’t. You can set the stage all you want in order to remind them down the road of how they ought to behave, it won’t change a damn thing about how they’ll behave. This and $5 will buy you a cup of coffee.
Midas on July 14, 2009 at 7:17 PM
Why does she wait so long to answer if she thinks there are people out in the world currently planning the destruction of America???
Shouldn’t that just be a “duh”?
Abby Adams on July 14, 2009 at 7:17 PM
It did seem like the world’s longest pause.
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 7:18 PM
I was more impressed with John Kyl’s grilling of Sotomayor.
ynot4tony2 on July 14, 2009 at 7:18 PM
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:08 PM
God bless you many times over.
fourdeucer on July 14, 2009 at 7:19 PM
I’m not watching any of it. If she’s not confirmed, I’ll go back and see what the fuss was. Voting to confirm after being so “tough” leaves me un-impressed.
Marcus on July 14, 2009 at 7:20 PM
Graham/Cheney ’12
CynicalOptimist on July 14, 2009 at 7:25 PM
Hell, I have yet to see a top spin that fast! Canned and scripted is correct..you could see her mind indexing the responses with that blank stare she had….
lsutiger on July 14, 2009 at 7:25 PM
It seriously is painful. I was starting to wonder whether my internet connection had died.
Abby Adams on July 14, 2009 at 7:26 PM
All the more reason it would be important for a Judge to have empathy, wouldn’t it?
You just pointed to why this Senator is more of a hypocrite to denounce a decision based on the judge’s life experiences. That is where you draw from when you make decisions.
ckoeber on July 14, 2009 at 7:26 PM
The libs make it so easy as their responses to everything never change; it’s always racism.
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:28 PM
What does a judge use empathy for?
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 7:28 PM
Sure, but put someone who is not white on the bench and all of a sudden it’s identity politics, Bishop? Please.
ckoeber on July 14, 2009 at 7:28 PM
The only way it can’t be racist for you is when everyone is white. I got it.
ckoeber on July 14, 2009 at 7:29 PM
It’s like 9.5-10 seconds long. Right at the 20 minute mark.
Abby Adams on July 14, 2009 at 7:31 PM
I don’t know if its just me.. and I admit I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the proceedings, but she came across as kinda dumb as transparent to me. Sort of fake and over practiced. Like a mediocre con artist.
Itchee Dryback on July 14, 2009 at 7:32 PM
As a Supreme Court Justice you draw from the Constitution and settled law, not ‘life experiences’.
thomasaur on July 14, 2009 at 7:32 PM
Sotomayor’s far more privileged than the vast majority of white males with pronounced Southern accents, I assure you. What’s the deal? Southern accent = “RACIIIIIIST!!!!” ?
History is going to laugh and laugh at such prejudiced dipshits as yourself.
ddrintn on July 14, 2009 at 7:33 PM
+1
This is just a show for him. When he’s done, he’s going to tell the racist bigots to shut up and vote for her anyway.
FloatingRock on July 14, 2009 at 7:33 PM
To understand how the law affects people.
Without empathy we would say things like “We don’t need police. Everyone should just get a gun and protect themselves.”
ckoeber on July 14, 2009 at 7:33 PM
Actually, not, goober. He smoked your assertion that
Do try to keep up.
Fallen Sparrow on July 14, 2009 at 7:34 PM
That’s certainly not true for me. I’m with MLK: A person (including a SCOTUS nominee) should be judged on the content of his/her character (or, in this case, merit), never by skin color.
jazz_piano on July 14, 2009 at 7:34 PM
At seven seconds, I started thinking “Oh my, she is actually not going to answer the question.”
But it turns out she was just trying to figure out how to sound like an American in a post 9/11 world.
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 7:34 PM
You’re not very good at this, are you?
First you claimed by extension that Graham was a rich, privileged white guy and I proved he didn’t exactly start life with a silver spoon in his mouth. Are you ready to retract your statement?
Second, you now want to claim that Graham is being a hypocrite, even though he explicitly says that a Justice needs to follow the LAW, instead of some preconceived victim status of their own.
You have to try harder, son, I can only ingest a certain amount of ignorance in one night.
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:35 PM
I’m really surprised he didn’t welcome his new Hispanic overlord, as is his custom, but other than that Graham does a pretty good job.
DFCtomm on July 14, 2009 at 7:35 PM
I saw this live this afternoon…it was just as nice then as it is now.
bluelightbrigade on July 14, 2009 at 7:35 PM
That’s for the legislature. They need to know how the law affects people because they craft the laws.
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 7:35 PM
To understand how the law affects people.
Wait, what?
Oh my my my.
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:37 PM
Can you clarify the logic a bit? I have no idea what you’re shooting for.
Itchee Dryback on July 14, 2009 at 7:37 PM
If that was the case slavery would still be legal because under “settled law” blacks were three-fifths of a man.
Or woman would not have the right to vote.
The fourteenth amendment disproves your entire argument, both in writing and through its inception.
ckoeber on July 14, 2009 at 7:37 PM
Hmmm…who was it that tried to crucify Clarence Thomas?
ddrintn on July 14, 2009 at 7:37 PM
You get a lot of mileage out of things you don’t know, what’s your secret?
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:38 PM
I hate to break it to you but the primary preventative aspect of the police is to place criminals in jail after they have committed a crime. Your protection is your own responsibility.
DFCtomm on July 14, 2009 at 7:38 PM
Someone who argued against having police would be lacking in common sense, I think. Empathy wouldn’t be the issue.
jazz_piano on July 14, 2009 at 7:39 PM
That makes absolutely no sense to me.
How do you define ‘empathy’ and how does that fit in with your comment that I quoted?
Itchee Dryback on July 14, 2009 at 7:40 PM
Do you know how the justice and legal system in this country works?
Stare decisis. Look it up.
Abby Adams on July 14, 2009 at 7:41 PM
What the hel! are you talking about, the committee can’t point out that someone who claims their own racial heritage would make them superior to others might not be a good trait for a seat on our highest court?
These are HER words, why is that so hard for you to grasp?
Bishop on July 14, 2009 at 7:41 PM
That’s the 19th amendment. Might have involved empathy on the part of the voters and the legislature, but not the Court.
myrenovations on July 14, 2009 at 7:42 PM
What is that argument, as you understand it?
Itchee Dryback on July 14, 2009 at 7:44 PM
Jesus Christ!! This has got to be ‘getalife’ on lithium..or LSD.
BigWyo on July 14, 2009 at 7:44 PM
Comment pages: 1 2 Next »