Prometheus 6

The NY Times is liveblogging the first day of Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. I figure that's enough for today since the Q & A starts tomorrow. It's all opening statements, but I'd like to draw your attention to two bits in particular.

The ‘Everyday White Guy’ | 11:30 a.m.
After Judge Sotomayor’s remarks about a “wise Latina” making a better decision than a white man, Senator Graham said he was troubled by that as “an everyday white guy” right around the time he was scheduled to meet with her for the first time. Today, he soft-pedaled it a little, saying he didn’t think those decisions would be “better” than others.

The fact is, a wise Latina would make better decisions than an everyday white guy. So would a wise Black man, or a wise gay Eskimo. I would expect a wise white person to make a better decision whan an everyday fill-in-the-blank, too. Because, you see, an everyday fill-in-the-blank isn't wise. As evidence I present...Senator Lindsey Graham.

The other one came earlier, but you know how blogs do...

‘Politics Has No Place in the Courtroom’ | 10:17 a.m. Senator Sessions spares no words. Shortly into his speech, he declares that this confirmation hearing and nomination by President Obama marks a fork in the road. He said he was worried by President Obama’s decision to include empathy as a qualification for the Supreme Court.

“Like the American people I have watched this process for a number of years,” he said, “and I fear this empathy standards is another step down the road to a liberal activist, results-oriented and relativistic world where – laws lose their fixed meaning, unelected judges set policy; Americans are seen as members of separate groups rather than simply Americans, and where the constitutional limits on government power are ignored when politicians want to buy out private companies. ….

“… Call it empathy, call it prejudice, but whatever it is, it is not law. In truth, it is more akin to politics. And politics has no place in the courtroom.”

I think the Confederacy and the Union speak different languages. I think when Real Americans® say liberals want to destroy this country, "this country" is a basket holding somewhat different concepts than does the same-named basket a citizen of the Union carries around. I think, if the contents of a Confederate's "this country" basket were made properly known to most liberals, they would have to admit they would allow it, as a gestalt, to die. And Confederates feel if you don't actively support "this country" (because it needs active support to exist) you are a burden at best and an active obstruction at worst (the more they need what you won't give, the worse their judgment of you).

I think Senator Sessions has a similar communications problem. I think the basket he labels "empathy" holds what I call "sympathy."

SECONDS LATER: HOW could I forget Senator Hatch, who starts with an irrelevancy...

Judiciary Veteran Hatch Steps Up | 10:42 a.m. Senator Orrin Hatch is now outlining positions the president took when he was a Democratic senator from Illinois who opposed Republican nominees. Not just once, but Mr. Hatch returns to Mr. Obama’s record on voting against G.O.P. judicial candidates several times.

...and moves to the assumption she will join an activist court.

This is the Utah Republican’s 12th set of Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and Mr. Hatch notes that Judge Sotomayor, if confirmed, “will help change the very precedents that today bind her as a U.S. Circuit Judge. In other words, the judicial position to which she has been nominated is quite different than the judicial position she now occupies.”

Why does he assume precedents will change when the whole set of Conservatives have sworn fealty to precedent? And which precedents does he have in mind? Guess I have to wait until tomorrow to see, huh?