More Lame Than A Wise Latina Dodge
From what little I saw of the first three days of the Sotomayor hearings, she is something of a dud as a witness. Not much sparkle for her resume. Be that as it may, her tone deaf prevarications are not the most shameless moment for these hearings. That will be reserved for friendly questioners of the New Haven firemen. After three days of hand wringing about how “empathy” should not be a factor in selecting Supreme Court Justices, the Republicans are putting on a show of asking people how it felt to have a high test score and not get a promotion. Have they no sense of irony?
Ambiance 
Theo Boehm said,
July 17, 2009 at 1:41 am
I’d say she’s dissembling, not prevaricating, or, heaven forbid, lying.
In this, she’s doing a particularly uninspired job compared with recent candidates. Roberts, for example, was pleasingly smooth, with an assured air, as he told the Senators nothing.
Listening to as much of this as I could take, I was reminded of a parent-teacher conference with my son’s incompetent but well-credentialed 4th-grade teacher.
I’m not saying Sotomayor is incompetent. Her record clearly indicates otherwise. But I would have no way of knowing that by listening to her the past few days.
PatHMV said,
July 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Covering all the bases. The President says empathy in a judge is important (his own nominee, of course, has backtracked and said it’s not important at all). It only makes sense to cover all the bases, and present evidence that the candidate is not qualified for the reasons you believe are appropriate, but also try to show that the candidate is also unqualified if you look at the reasons the other side says are appropriate.
Beyond that, the testimony of the firefighters highlights how dangerous an “empathy” standard for a judge is. There are many times when both parties may seem sympathetic. That’s particularly true in employment suits over allegations of racial discrimination, where the case is entirely based on “discriminatory impact,” rather than any actual overt acts of racism. There, on the one hand you have sympathetic members of an historically discriminated against group, while on the other hand you have sympathetic members of a group of white people who have never themselves, perhaps, ever discriminated against anybody, but still must watch the job go to an individual who got lower test scores.
Callimachus said,
July 17, 2009 at 4:09 pm
It always surprises me when I’ve read how many Americans identify as Republicans. The party always seems to behave like a small minority, like it was in the FDR years. The Democrats have their clueless debaters and baiters and ranters. But it seems, in the GOP, they’re more often pillars of the party, or likely candidates for high office in some upcoming election.
Jason (the commenter) said,
July 18, 2009 at 11:48 am
Have they no sense of irony?
Perhaps they have a delicious one.
trooper york said,
July 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Why is she lying about her previous experiance as an actress?
trooper york said,
July 18, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I mean there are videos for proof.