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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review May 28, 2009 / 5 Sivan 5769

A Choice for the GOP

By David Broder


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It is as close to certain as anything gets in Washington that Judge Sonia Sotomayor is on her way to the Supreme Court. What impact she will have there is far harder to predict.


President Obama's choice to succeed retiring Justice David Souter has everything going for her. The Senate has already confirmed her twice, first when George H.W. Bush named her (at the behest of Daniel Patrick Moynihan) to the district court in New York and later when Bill Clinton elevated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.


With her solid record on the bench, with her appealing personal narrative as the daughter of Puerto Ricans who struggled to raise and educate their children with high aspirations and no wealth, and with 59 Democrats poised to vote for her and beat down a possible filibuster, she should have no difficulty clearing the procedural hurdles in time to relieve Souter at the beginning of the October term.


The main question about her confirmation is the choice it presents to Republicans. They are unlikely to defeat or even delay her elevation. If they mount a vigorous effort to challenge her, as some of their interest group supporters wish, they risk doing further damage to their party with the largest minority group in the country — Hispanics. The loss of Hispanic support that John McCain, by far their most credible candidate in the eyes of Latinos, suffered in 2008 as a consequence of GOP legislators' adamant opposition to comprehensive immigration reform alarmed most intelligent Republican strategists.


While most of the organizations that purport to speak for the conservative base immediately condemned Sotomayor and called on the GOP to oppose her, I think it's likely that many and perhaps most of the 40 Republicans left in the Senate will acquiesce to her appointment. Their initial comments were cautious. Before joining the general call for "a fair and thorough process" of examining the judge's credentials, retiring Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida signaled to his colleagues that they had better tread carefully.


Martinez, the only Latino Republican in the Senate, said he took "great pride" in her selection. Her "personal life story is one of great accomplishments and a source of inspiration. It also demonstrates the great opportunities our nation has to offer," he said.


Another important clue came from Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and other organizations that have provided raw material for Republican judicial battles. His statement said: "While I would have liked to see a more conservative libertarian type on the high court, President Obama's selection of …Sotomayor was a very prudent and wise decision from a far left liberal like Obama. …Sotomayor has previously pledged to follow the Constitution, and not legislate from the bench, and her career as a federal court judge suggests, as a whole, that this is the way she will administer to the law."


As against such cautions, Republican senators are being urged by conservative interest groups to consider scattered statements that Sotomayor has made — and at least one controversial decision.


In the New Haven, Conn., firefighters' case pending before the Supreme Court, Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel that upheld a lower court decision voiding a promotion test in which no black firefighter scored among the winners. It appears, on the face of it, to be an extreme application of affirmative action doctrine, and she will undoubtedly be pressed to explain and justify her decision.


The speech quotes that conservatives have unearthed are far less damaging when viewed in context. Her use of the word "policy" in describing what appellate courts make was perhaps imprecise, but no worse than that. And her lauding the ability of "a wise Latina woman" to use her experience to make wise judgments on the bench was perhaps self-serving, but hardly an indication of a closed mind.


I have to believe that many Republican senators will seize the opportunity Obama has provided and prove they are not as narrow-minded as their most extreme backers. And then hope that, like some mirror image of Souter, Sotomayor will surprise the world with some of her votes.

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Previously:



05/24/09: A Worthy Debate: What Obama and Cheney Got Right
05/21/09: Obama in command
05/11/09: Molehill Out of a Budget Mountain
05/07/09: The Life of His Party
05/04/09: Detroit Opens Up the Hood
04/30/09: Specter the defector
04/26/09: Stop Scapegoating: Obama Should Stand Against Prosecutions
04/23/09: A Bravura Opening
04/13/09: Why the Center Still Holds
04/09/09: Being a sports fan just got a whole lot better
04/06/09: A Bipartisan Bill Worth Celebrating
04/02/09: Obama's Muscle Moment
03/30/09: Warning: Congress is about to perform a cover-up on the most serious threat to America's economic future

03/23/09: Mr. Cool's March Madness

03/16/09: End of the honeymoon

03/08/09: Education's Chance of a Lifetime: Reforming Education With Sufficient Resources
03/05/09: Running on empty
03/01/09: Illinois' Mr. Clean
02/26/09: Obama rolls the dice
02/22/09: New Eyes On Bigger Prizes
02/19/09: Betting on bipartisanship
02/16/09: Just the Start
02/12/09: Biden in the House
02/09/09: The GOP Faces the Blue Wall
02/06/09: A cabinet loss and gain
02/02/09: The votes Obama truly needs
02/02/09: It's no joke to Illinois
01/26/09: Dynasties in decline
01/22/09: Born to build bridges
01/19/09: The call that Bush didn't make
01/15/09: Diplomacy that heals
01/12/09: An early drubbing for Obama
01/09/09: Tales From Longworth
01/05/09: Missing A Few Sages
01/02/09: Illinois Outdoes Itself
12/29/08: The GOP Goes South
12/15/08: Health Reform's Moment
12/11/08: Long Path to a Fall in Illinois
12/08/08: Rescuing a college education
12/04/08: The danger of holdovers
11/31/08: Addressing the States' Dire Straits
11/28/08: Good time for a brainy president
11/24/08: Rising Hope For Fixing Health Care
11/19/08: A Force for Good — but Not at State
11/17/08: GOP has work to do
11/13/08: Obama's good start
11/10/08: Governors Know Best
11/06/08: The Task Ahead
11/03/08: The Amazing Race: I thought 1960 was the best campaign I'd ever cover. But 2008 has that election beat
10/30/08: What We've Learned About McCain
10/27/08: A New England Brawl
10/23/08: Blue Sparks in Red Ohio
10/17/08: Obama's Assurance Policy
10/14/08: Live from the Pennsylvania frontlines
10/12/08: The proposals that could bind Obama
10/09/08: What do we really know about them?
10/06/08: The uplifting debate
10/02/08: Economics Exam in Michigan
09/28/08: McCain out-pointed Obama
09/26/08: Credibility Test for Congress
09/22/08: A debate's high stakes
09/22/08: Down days for McCain
09/15/08: The Next President's Due Bill
09/11/08: GOP celebration and Dem gloom are premature
09/08/08: Can we count on change?
09/03/08: Palin's Learning Curve
09/02/08: How Palin could help
09/02/08: What Happened to the Obama of 2004?
08/26/08: The Women Hit Their Mark
08/25/08: The Joe I know … and what it means for McCain
08/21/08: In N.H., a Deal to Close
08/18/08: Obama's Well-Oiled Machine
08/14/08: Pros and Conventions: Useful Ideas From the Stevensons and Friends
08/11/08: Rivals in Search of Trust
08/07/08: A Way Back to the High Road?
08/04/08: A Slate To Revive The Senate
07/31/08: When Congress Works
07/29/08: Management 101 for Senators
07/24/08: Obama's success abroad was pure luck
07/21/08: Obama's success abroad was pure luck
07/17/08: Governors offer real world wisdom. Obama and McCain would be wise to listen
07/14/08: Foes and allies strive to peg a shifty Obama
07/10/08: Fixing How We Go to War
07/07/08: Decider on the High Court
07/03/08: One Nation No More? Civics Needs a Boost, but Our Identity Endures
06/30/08: Dumbing Down the Presidency
06/26/08: Voting's Neglected Scandal
06/23/08: Why don't we know what makes Obama tick?
06/19/08: Foreign Policy's Best Hope
06/16/08: Perot, Back On the Charts
06/16/08: The Many Gifts of Tim Russert
06/12/08: Why Hillary played the womyn card
06/08/08: Eclipsed by the Adventures of Hillary
06/02/08: Obama in retreat
06/02/08: Reality vs. the Mythmakers
05/29/08: Hamilton Jordan's Message to Obama
05/27/08: Let the Veepstakes Begin
05/19/08: The mental exercise of placing Obama in the Oval Office requires more imagination than did moving Reagan from the silver screen to Pennsylvania Ave.
05/15/08: For Obama, a Lost Moment
05/12/08: The price of delay
05/08/08: Phoniness and inevitability
05/05/08: Winning by destruction: An insider reveals the Hillary game plan
05/01/08: Candidates' high-mindedness is rooted in religiosity; but Hillary and McCain don't have hater as inspiration


© 2008, by WPWG

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