The Bully Puppet

It’s Official. Obama will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the SCOTUS.

Some background.

Even the liberals think she is a lightweight.

[TNR] But despite the praise from some of her former clerks, and warm words from some of her Second Circuit colleagues, there are also many reservations about Sotomayor. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been talking to a range of people who have worked with her, nearly all of them former law clerks for other judges on the Second Circuit or former federal prosecutors in New York. Most are Democrats and all of them want President Obama to appoint a judicial star of the highest intellectual caliber who has the potential to change the direction of the court. Nearly all of them acknowledged that Sotomayor is a presumptive front-runner, but nearly none of them raved about her. They expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as well as a clear liberal alternative.

The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was “not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench,” as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge put it. “She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren’t penetrating and don’t get to the heart of the issue.” (During one argument, an elderly judicial colleague is said to have leaned over and said, “Will you please stop talking and let them talk?”)

Oh and there is this troubling case that is being reviewed by the Supreme Court…

Oh, and there is her stated intention to legislate from the bench.

Oh, and there is this little nugget delivered in a speech.

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,”

So we have a nominee of questionable caliber of questionable judgment and of a questionable judicial temperament.

So naturally the Repulicans, in order to maintain the record of complete ineffectualness, want to come out unified and neutral on the nomination. From KLo

Over the weekend, I was forwarded a request from the Republican National Committee from someone who was being asked to be a surrogate for the RNC on the Supreme Court pick — that is, talk on TV and radio on behalf of the RNC. The request included the guidance that the RNC is “looking to come out very neutral on the subject.”

Neutral? The Left sure isn’t “neutral” on the Court or on Republican presidential nominees for the Court. By all means, be reasonable. But the RNC wants to be “neutral”? If the RNC is neutral is there anyone left in America to join the likes of Cheney and Gingrich (as Bill Kristol puts it; scroll down) to oppose Obama-administration moves?