Note to GOP...please oppose Judge Sotomayor...as it would be virtual political suicide

Here's how he actually said it (emphasis mine):

"When Sonia Sotomayor ascends those marble steps to assume her seat on the highest court in the land, America will have taken another important step toward realizing the ideal that is etched above its entrance: Equal justice under the law.

I hope the Senate acts in a bipartisan fashion, as it has in confirming Judge Sotomayor twice before, and as swiftly as possible, so that she can take her seat on the court in September and participate in deliberations as the court chooses which cases it will hear this coming year.

This is what it sounded like:

Sotomayor has been confirmed before. She was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush, for goodness sake. You're not going to win this one, and if you try, you will lose more than just time in session to try and fight some more important battles. You may simply look petty to many Americans, but among the growing Hispanic population, a perception of the GOP as a racist party will be cemented. You already lost the Hispanic vote big in 2008, even though you were running a pro-immigration reform candidate for president. For your own well-being as a political entity, get Sotomayor on the bench before the August recess.

What a bind the GOP is in. On one hand, Judge Sotomayor is a judge that leans left...no doubt about it. Thus, they want to oppose her. Then there is the political juggernaut of the Obama Administration, which has a near filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. The GOP has approval numbers that are more dismal than George W. Bush's were in his last year of office. They can't afford to look that bad, especially to the growing Hispanic voter base.

So...they oppose Sotomayor and take another drubbing in the polls in 2010 (especially from Hispanics)...or they do not oppose her, and further alienate their base.

Never let be said Barack Obama doesn't know how politics works. He has essentially backed the Senate GOP into a corner, and either way they come out they lose. And at the same time he's made an outstanding pick for the Supreme Court, one that (given her age) will be around a long time. She's a highly experienced judge, with more time on the bench than many previous Supreme Court picks, she has in the past had broad bipartisan support, she is politically mainly moderate to slightly liberal, she has a great backstory, and she's overall just a good person.

The GOP is manning the guns...great, let 'em. They will basically destroy themselves opposing her. And they can yell and scream all they want, but she's going to be confirmed...it would take every Republican Senator to block her (and, by the time it comes to a vote, the Senate Democrats may well have the magic 60 votes to make it moot).

And, of course, judicial filibusters are not something the GOP approves of...remember?

Technorati Tags: Politics, Republicans, Sotomayor, Supreme Court