Sonia, We Hardly Knew Ye, Apparently

The Sotomayor "Just say anything, they'll never impeach you after they confirm you" hearing of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor continues.

From Collin Levy of the WSJ we learn that Ms. Sotomayor is in full retreat on the role of international law in US courts.

Ms. Sotomayor has also run away from the "empathy" selling point - now judging is simply the application of law to the facts.

Eva Rodriguez of the WaPo preferred the original Sotomayor.

Nancy Benac of the AP is not entranced, leading with "It's a good thing Sonia Sotomayor speaks Sotomayoran."

But no worries - the NY Times reports that her confirmation is on track:

One of the committee’s most senior members, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said in an interview that he would be surprised if some in his party did not vote to confirm.

Though Mr. Hatch said he had not made up his mind, he could be a barometer for other Republicans. He has voted in the past to confirm Democratic nominees to the Supreme Court, and said even before Judge Sotomayor was nominated that she would be difficult to oppose.

“Has she handled all the questions well? No,” he said. “But she’s handled a lot of the questions probably well enough.”

The Times tackles her retreats and re-positionings in a News Analysis:

By forcing Judge Sotomayor to retreat from Mr. Obama’s desire for justices with “empathy,” Republicans have effectively set a new standard that future nominees will be pressed to meet. The Republicans hope their aggressive questioning of Judge Sotomayor on race discrimination, gun control and the death penalty will make it harder for Mr. Obama to choose a more outspoken liberal in the future.

Liberal activists, by contrast, hope the hearings demonstrate that a Democratic president has nothing to fear from Republicans who have not rattled Judge Sotomayor. If she is confirmed by a commanding vote that includes a number of Republicans, the activists argue, they will have given Mr. Obama more political running room next time to name a more full-throated champion of liberal values.

The lib activist position is kind of poignant - if Sotomayor can lie her way on to the court, maybe the next nominee can get there telling the truth.  Maybe!  And maybe even if if Rosa Parks had been white she could have integrated the Montgomery buses.  No, I have no idea how that could have worked, but I am not a liberal activist.

Its a win for the Republicans if they can create an environment in which Obama feels obliged to send up stealth nominees, since that creates the possibility of a reverse Souter.

Comments

[clarice]

Tie up Hatch and gag him until this is over.

[Pofarmer]

When some of the Libs are agog at her change in positions, you know it's bad.

[Pofarmer]

I'm gonna repost "How to Brainwash a Nation" here. It's pretty good.

LUN.

[J]

This is my hope. If a bunch of old white men can tap her on the head, tell the world to pay no attention to what the little woman has said over the last twenty years (or she didn't mean it)and she goes along with that degrading behavior, perhaps the brains on the court can nullify her arguments.

[Pofarmer]

HOLY COW.

Lows for Friday and Saturday night in the 50's, in Missouri, in JULY?

[hit and run]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Durbin-DC-tops-in-abortion-because-its-residents-are-black-50940432.html>Not Suprising:

In a committee markup last week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that residents of the District of Columbia have a disproportionately large number of abortions because D.C. is disproportionately African-American.

[Extraneus]

Did everyone see yesterday that she apparently doesn't know the difference between “eminent” and “imminent”?

[DebinNC]

That video was very good, Po, if you like horror films. Scariest line: "Exposure to true information doesn't matter anymore." I hope we're not there yet, but if Kill Granny passes I'm very afraid we are.

[peter]

Ten years from now:

I was misquoted in my answers to Senators Jeffords, Hatch, and Graham. I was always a big government, socialist redistributionist.

[narciso]

Right, does anyone really think that she has changed her view that radically on this, raise you hands, if you do. People change philosophical outlooks because of events, some for expediency (consider the new US Ambassador to Malta, Mr. Kmiec) The saving grace of this, is that she really won't be able to steer the court, at least
that's what Bill Dyer says.

[fdcol63]

Po,

The brainwashing video explains the strategy involved, and I think this article on how Obama might be using conversational hypnosis methods in his speeches is interesting, too:

An Examination of Obama’s
Use of Hidden Hypnosis
Techniques in His Speeches

I think one of the most amazing things I've seen is Derren Brown, like in this video where he subliminally plants images into the minds of a couple of advertising people to "predict" almost the exact ad for a bogus product line that he wants them to develop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivbPDJH5D6o&feature=related

Scary how easy some people can be manipulated.

[fdcol63]

Sorry ... link to the hypnosis article is in the paragraph introducing the Derren video.

[Jane]

Someone needs to ask Sotomayor what caused her to change her mind on all these things - one by one.

[GMax]

Why do they lie about what they believe, well number lying seems to work. What does not work? Telling the truth when you are a rabid liberal. It gets you beat like a drum except in the prog hells of the inner cities and places like Bezerkly and Madison and anywhere in Vermont.

[DebinNC]

That article is fascinating, fdcol63. TY

[Sue]

Someone needs to ask Sotomayor what caused her to change her mind on all these things - one by one.

Posted by: Jane | July 16, 2009 at 10:30 AM

She is just going to say she hasn't changed her mind, she was misunderstood, taken out of context, yada yada yada. What she has said on everything.

[Pofarmer]

I hope we're not there yet,

Oh, I think we're very much there.

[fdcol63]

Indeed. The simple fact that someone like Obama was elected at all demonstrates that we're there.

[clarice]

Today's Obama headache has arrived early.

[Rick Ballard]

Surely we can all agree that Judge Sotomayor has diversified the list of synonyms for wise? Who would have ever considered adding "ignorant" and "mendacious" otherwise?

[Fresh Air]

The question isn't whether we were there last fall, it's whether we are there now. I think we've got two or three more election cycles to come to our senses and stop the madness. After that, it will be another 15 years before enough of the rotten Baby Boomers are dead.

I think vigorous turnout and a pissed-off Muddle will still be enough for a while. But ultimately this country needs to get educated or we are heading straight to Serfdom.

[Jane]

She is just going to say she hasn't changed her mind, she was misunderstood, taken out of context, yada yada yada. What she has said on everything.

Doesn't matter. Going thru them one by one is the point.

[Jane]

Does anyone else think Coburn is "mightily impressed" with Sotomayor's mendacity?

fdcol63,

That truly was amazing.

[wuzzagrunt]

The problem--if it can legitimately called a problem--is that conservative and right-libertarian intellectuals believe their ideas are sound, and want to see them disseminated. They welcome honest debate. I know that goes against everything you learned in college. Your Post Modern Lesbian Perspectives on Gender Roles in the Pre-Columbian Meso American Basket Weaving Collective professor was especially clear that this is not the case.

There will be no stealth conservative SCOTUS nominee. There will be no "reverse Souter", and I wouldn't want to see one.

[Arliss]

It is only ok with you that Republicans lie to get on SCOTUS!

[bolitha]

I cannot tell you how very sad it makes me as an American that things are now such that a person (wise Latina) can lie at confirmation hearings and that senators--both Republican and Democrat--will vote to confirm her. I agree--we are there.

[Danube of Thought]

At least we'll hear no more about how brilliant she is. It is plain that she's a mediocrity and an ignoramus. But she'll be on the Court for a long, long time.

[PeterUK]

Arseless,

"It is only ok with you that Republicans lie to get on SCOTUS!"

Go away and rethink your comment,you are implying Sotomayor is lying.

[PeterUK]

A cretina.

[bad]

It is plain that she's a mediocrity and an ignoramus.

A perfect match for Ibama...

[Skeptical]

Can anyone confirm or refute that 80% of Sotomayor's decisions have been overturned ?

[PDinDetroit]

Detroit Voter admits he voted for Ibama "because he was black".

News at 11 - man bites dog - LUN.

[centralcal]

A "mediocrity," an "ignoramus," and it would seem, a liar.

Not one Republican should cast a vote for her because of her blatant lying.

[PDinDetroit]

Po - check out the LUN.

We have been close to setting RECORD LOWS here in Michigan. I think we had one FULL WEEK of summer.

Damn, just when I had it figured out we have 9 months of Winter and 3 Months of Construction, someone goes and changes it on me!

[Dave (in MA)]

Skeptical, the 80% figure only refers to the cases that were brought before the Supreme Court for review, not the cases overall.

[PeterUK]

Skeptical

Mz Sonia Sotomayor. Professional Puerto Rican.

[narciso]

It's 'una cretina' just to be grammatically correct, PeterUK, well it's three of the five, in the Supremes, but I don't know how many of her lower court decision, have been reversed

[Jane]

Not one Republican should cast a vote for her because of her blatant lying.

You know I think the republicans think the public is yammering for the two sides to work together and compromise. I'm not seeing that. I'm seeing that the republicans want to see the democrats stopped.

Someone should inform them.

[clarice]

The good thing about this administration is that (a) it highlights how AA candidates are frequently overrated and (b0 ditto with Ivy League grads.
Geithner's a fool extraordinaire.
Soto and Obama are also fools but they cannot even speak correctly or argue logically.

[MayBee]

I feel differently about it.

She's going to get confirmed, and I think in the long run its beneficial to be able to point to a few Republicans who voted for the president's appointment.

It lends some credibility to criticism of her/him later.

[Jane]

The good thing about this administration is that (a) it highlights how AA candidates are frequently overrated

Get out of my head Clarice - I was thinking that just yesterday. It's quite sad actually and undoubtedly not true of all AA candidates just the ones Obama chooses.

[clarice]

We're not alone though they aren't putting it quite this way:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/obamas_head_full_of_academic_y_1.html

[MarkO]

I would like someone to ask her whether her prior inconsistent statements would be seen by her, as a judge, to impeach her current testimony and require her, as a judge, find she lacked credibility in all her testimony.

Maybe she would sustain an objection to the proposed impeachment on the theory that it was not inconsistent and wait to see if that ruling would disappear before it was overruled.

She certainly knows how to game this system.

[Sue]

In 15 years, we'll be Venezuela. You can't just go back, once those who never pay for the "free" stuff start getting the "free" stuff.

[Extraneus]

You know I think the republicans think the public is yammering for the two sides to work together and compromise.

Strange how Democrats never think that, isn't it?

[centralcal]

Sue: I have a question for you as a Texan - who are you supporting for Governor? Perry or KBH? I don't follow Texas politics too closely, but I thought Perry was a pretty popular Gov.

[Dave (in MA)]

MayBee, pointing out the RINOism of people like Snowe, Collins, Specter, McCain, Hatch etc. hasn't helped before, so why expect it to matter in the future? Only yesterday I heard some nit-wit on the radio talking about that right-winger Specter and never being able to forgive him for that horrible treatment of Anita Hill. I wish somebody could convince me we're not doomed.

[bad]

Perry for me, CC. I don't see him on the national stage though.

KBH and I aren't playing well together these days.

[Dave (in MA)]

The good thing about this administration is that (a) it highlights how AA candidates are frequently overrated

...But only to those of us who are already of that opinion, it seems.

[clarice]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/obamas_head_full_of_academic_y_1.html>oops

[fdcol63]

"Today's Obama headache has arrived early."

Clarice, your's actually goes away? Mine's been solid since Nov. LOL

[clarice]

barbara, your tip is good. I've shared it with another blogger who might be able to highlight this in a way to get more attention and therefore more facts.

[MayBee]

MayBee, pointing out the RINOism of people like Snowe, Collins, Specter, McCain, Hatch etc. hasn't helped before, so why expect it to matter in the future?

I don't think pointing out RINOism or DINOism is ever very helpful.

I do know that I will listen to Joe Lieberman, when many Dems hate him, because he's willing to support and oppose people and ideas from both parties.

And as problematic as John McCain was, his support for the surge was important- in part because he'd been so critical of Bush.

So I say it helps to have some in the party who have supported the other side sometimes, especially when their support doesn't make a bit of difference in the final outcome (like Soto's confirmation).

[bad]

Thanks for that link, clarice. Althouse and Kaus both made excellent points and
one hopes they will be widely read.

[Thomas Collins]

The most troubling aspect of her testimony is her refusal to acknowledge that a right to self-defense is inherent in the kind of body politic the US is. It is inherent in our founding. With all her doubletalk, she appears to believe that a right to self-defense is a matter for state or federal legislation to grant. See LUN.

If someone has already posted this part of her testimony, I apologize for overlooking the post.

[clarice]

You're welcome, bad.

I'm heading out for a bit--but here's Spengler on the world headache brought to us by He Who Throws Like a Girl :
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KF30Ak02.html

[centralcal]

Have y'all seen Babs Boxer get her damned ears boxed and called a racist?? Gateway Pundit and HotAir both have the video.

It is priceless.

[centralcal]

posted too soon - HotAir is LUN on this comment, not the one above.

[narciso]

I guess it depends on the candidate, If I lived in Connetticut, I would vote for Lieberman, since his opponent was Norman Lamont, the WASP version of Obama. Specter,
Collins, what have they done recently that is positive.

[Pofarmer]

I wish somebody could convince me we're not doomed.

Good luck with that, because it makes two of us.

[Rick Ballard]

TC,

She understands the concept behind "some must die so that others may have liberty". She would definitely make the "good fertilizer" list for the Tree of Liberty so I'd say that she displays a fine grasp of self defense.

Sue,

I disagree that Venezuela provides the "model". I agree in general with the idea that it's difficult to get the mob out of the granary once they have forced their way in but I would expect an rapidly increasing disrespect for the law to be the initial response. The (D)irty Fascists are depending upon a the compliance of a docile population of producers to fill the granary.

I wouldn't bet on it, myself.

[Jane]

Loved it Centralcal. And good for the Chamber guy!

[PeterUK]

Boxer looked like someone had shoved her dolly in a blender,she had a face like a smacked arse.

[sbw]

I wish somebody could convince me we're not doomed.

Be of good cheer. If this nation is doomed, good ideas from its creation and experience will take root elsewhere, flourish, and persist.

[Barbara]

Clarice,

Great!

[bad]

More fun facts to know about Sotomayor via Patterico.

Sotomayor says:

And it became clear to me after looking at that case that that process led to affirming the decision of the national labor relationships board that it could and should issue an injunction on the grounds that it claimed. So that, too, was a case where there’s a new argument, a new claim, but where the application of the law came from taking the principles of the law and applying it to that new claim.

Sounds like Sonia and JoyceKane are in the same business with that quote.

LUB

[PeterUK]

Is there anywhere a message of support can be left for the Chamber of Commerce guy?

Liberal,or to give them their proper name "steenkin socialists" need to be countered with their own prejudices.

[Sue]

I disagree that Venezuela provides the "model".

I will rejoice if you are correct and I'm wrong.

[Jane]

Bad,

Remember how clear Roberts was in his hearings. I really don't speak legaleze doublespeak. I was most impressed by the fact that John Roberts was consistently clear as a bell. You knew exactly what he was saying.

[Sue]

Posted by: centralcal | July 16, 2009 at 01:30 PM

Thank you for posting that link. I thoroughly enjoyed her being slapped like the bitch she is.

[narciso]

This makes Iowahawk's special guest
commentary in the LUN;

[glasater]

I disagree that Venezuela provides the "model".

I will rejoice if you are correct and I'm wrong.

At this point I'm thinking North Korea--is what we/US will look like in fifteen years if Zero become prez for life.

[Dave (in MA)]

Have y'all seen Babs Boxer get her damned ears boxed and called a racist??

Plus, he called her "ma'am" right off the bat! HA!

[Extraneus]

Good one, cc. Now that the term has been authorized by the left, it's not poor form to call Babs a "bimbo," is it?

[Sue]

Dave,

He called her ma'am several times. I counted 3 after I remembered it was her that needed to be called senator at an earlier hearing.

[fdcol63]

"He (the NAACP executive) would be proud, proud that you're here."

TRANSLATION: " 'Cause y'all know we high and mighty white elitist US Senato-ahs didn't used to let y'all coloreds in the doors of this hee-ah august chambah."

[Sue]

I loved it when Mr. Alford asked her why she didn't invite the other guy to come testify.

[PeterUK]

Why be Venezuela when you can be Cuba?

[PeterUK]

Was George III any worse than Obama I ?

[MayBee]

I loved it when Mr. Alford asked her why she didn't invite the other guy to come testify.

That was genius.

[Extraneus]

Fun as it was, the guy's argument made little sense to me. He's the head of an overtly racial group, the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Yet his point was that her bringing up other racial groups was insulting or irrelevant because... She's white? The other groups are dumb? I didn't get that. If you don't want to be treated as a black man, then don't be the head of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Just be the head of the National Regular Chamber of Commerce.

[centralcal]

Woo Hoo - Rush is playing a clip of Alford v. Boxer right now!

[Jane]

Ricci is testifying. Hot Air has the live feed

[Sue]

Why be Venezuela when you can be Cuba?

Because Cuba had a government overthrown. Venezuela has become Venezuela by degrees. Chavez ran on the same populist platform Obama did. And then set about reducing the middle class. The ultra rich are still ultra rich. The poor are still poor, there are just more of them now. Chavez expanded his voting base, just as Obama is doing. That is why I compare Obama's US to Chavez's Venezuela. My b-i-l, who is Venezuelan, sees the same thing happening here that he watched in Venezuela. He, his mother, and a younger sister got out, but his brother is still there. His brother's wife wouldn't leave her family.

[PeterUK]

" If you don't want to be treated as a black man, then don't be the head of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Just be the head of the National Regular Chamber of Commerce."

It wasn't necessary for Boxer to compare like with like. If she had had the sensitivity of a dead squid,she would have known that.

[narciso]

The assumption, wasbecause those groups are black, and they support green energy, he must do so as well. It's a flawed assumption who's more likely to need reliable energy, which is not the point of this bill

[Danube of Thought]

When has a piece of legislation been presented more dishonestly than Obamacare? If they ram this thing through, it will be with us forever--yet they won't say a truthful word about it. If the good guys can delay it a bit, I think public opposition will grow substantially. God, how did we end up with this guy as president and a Dem supermajority?

Aloha.

[Sue]

Posted by: Extraneus | July 16, 2009 at 02:34 PM

I was so excited that he slapped Boxer I didn't vent about my other peeve, race based groups. Glad you brought me back down to earth. I still like he beat her up a little, but you make an excellent point.

[bad]

Byron York on Sotomayor's denial of knowledge of PRLDEF litigation.

After Sotomayor's testimony, Republican aides compared her words with the (incomplete) records they received from PRLDEF. Sotomayor was not only on the board from 1980 to 1992, she was on PRLDEF's litigation committee for eight of those years, and chairman of the litigation committee for four. According to those internal PRLDEF documents, pursuing lawsuits was the organization's primary activity; it was listed first in the group's mission statement. And the papers contain evidence that Sotomayor, who of course brought a legal background to the job, was closely involved in PRLDEF's litigation.

Obama should have married this woman. They are totally sympatico.

LUN

[Jane]

The firefighters are doing great. Hitting all the right notes. The Hispanic guy congratulated Sotomayor on her nomination and said: "It shouldn't be about the fact that I I am hispanic but about the merit."

[Rick Ballard]

"Was George III any worse than Obama I?"

No, but the response will be different this time and it won't follow a Latin American or European model. I anticipate accelerating capital flight and heavier internal migration - a continuation of the process which is already underway. I don't see any reason why it would not be accompanied by a greater disdain for the law and for contemptible lawmakers - that's the part where the granary becomes depleted and the mob gets to go after the contemptible lawmakers rather than eat the dirt provided by same.

[Jane]

"We don't want sympathy or empathy, we just want equal treatment under the law".

[centralcal]

Ext: I checked out the NBCC website, and you are right. Still, I do enjoy Babs getting boxed.

[alina]

That article is fascinating..

[Mom]

OT - Health Reform

How can it be constitutional for a federal law to require that I buy health insurance? And that if I don't buy it I can be assessed a "tax penalty"?

[PeterUK]

Republicans should simply rejoice at Boxer getting her ear boxed. Forget the logical niceties,just win for a change.

[Jane]

Holy Cow this testimony is amazing. Linda Chavez comes out swinging in opposition citing "identity politics"

[bad]

Paul Campos, a lefty at the Daily Beast, says Sotomayor is lying.

LUN

[narciso]

Of course, she's lying, you can't walk away from twenty, thirty years of decisions; without good cause. And all these excuses
about privations even though she went to Spellman & Princeton & Yale Law, rub me the wrong way. It's par for the course, for all his other appointees

[Jane]

Linda Chavez just handed Dick Durbin his hat.

Tee Hee