Powerline’s Che Sotomayor joke underscores GOP dilemma: Opposing nominee without alienating Latinos
Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 5:08 pm
- 6 Comments
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s ethnicity and politics get a jab from rightwing blogger Paul Mirengoff, who at Powerline relates a comment by a “friend” that Sotomayor is “Che Guevara in robes.” (The friend’s “joking, I think,” writes Mirengoff, who gets attention — although a misspelled last name — from the New York Times’ Opinionator blog for it today.) But jokes aside, GOPers like those at Powerline are facing a dilemma with opposing Sotomayor’s nomination: When their party’s down and out, do they risk alienating Latinos, one of the fastest growing groups of American voters?
The Times’ Adam Nagourney writes:
President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has put the Republican Party in a bind, as it weighs the cost of aggressively opposing Mr. Obama’s attempt to put the first Hispanic on the high court at a time when the party has struggled with sharp setbacks in its effort to appeal to Hispanic voters.
The Republican Party has been embroiled in a public argument over whether to tend to the ideological interests of its conservative base or to expand its appeal to a wider variety of voters in order to regain its strength following the defeats of 2008. Many conservatives came out fiercely against Ms. Sotomayor as soon her name was announced, denouncing her as liberal and promising Mr. Obama a tough nomination fight.
The only question for the GOP, writes John Cole at Balloon Juice, is whether to filibuster the nomination:
If they decide not to filibuster, all that remains is a balancing act for them – how to not do a bunch of damage to themselves by way of hyperbolic statements that will be played on infinite loop in heavy Hispanic areas in the 2010 midterms, but at the same time still making it look like they are throwing some red meat to the base to keep the fundraising money coming in to the coffers.
Hyperbolic… you mean like Mirengoff’s Che “joke”?
6 Comments
Comment posted May 28, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
Aw go ahead and shoot yerselves in the feet again! You won’t need Hispanic voters, women, blacks or any other minorities, y’all got Rush and Karl, and Dick and about 200 other red meat eaters who are all registered neat and proper. Why I bet you could hold next year’s convention in Cheney’s bunker!
Comment posted May 29, 2009 @ 12:19 am
Right, a “friend” said it. And the friend is anonymous, just in case it comes off as racist. She could be Ho Chi Minh in robes, Trotsky in robes, but it’s pure chance the joking friend picked a Latin American. Sure.
If anyone wants an example of racism dripping from the blog post, look at Michael Goldfarb saying, “…Obama seems to have the views of a 21-year-old Hispanic girl…”. The context is he quoted something Sotomayor wrote when she was at Princeton about the university neglecting Puerto Ricans and Chicanos. Obviously anything said by a “21-year-old Hispanic girl” ought not be taken seriously. He also could have said Obama has the views of a 21-year-old if he wanted to imply immaturity. But no. That the 21-year-old is Hispanic and a girl seems to be the operative parts.
The amazing thing is even knowing their racism plays poorly, and they could just not bring up race, they can’t help themselves.
Comment posted May 29, 2009 @ 3:33 am
I wish she was Che Guevara in robes.
These corrupt oligarch pigs need a firing squad – not a bailout.
Comment posted May 29, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
I don’t know if Sotomayer deserves to be appointed or not. But if the right wing had any brains, they’d wait until the nomination process began and some actual facts about her views or decisions came out. idiots like this Paul Mirengoof are falling over one another to be first in being possibly proved wrong. How do they know Sotomayer is secretly not one of them?
Comment posted May 30, 2009 @ 1:58 am
“Che’s life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honor his memory.” — Nelson Mandela
Comment posted May 30, 2009 @ 11:42 am
We should expect a lot more of this “joking” as pundits, politicians, and Party leaders attempt to walk back from the brink of disaster in the coming months.
Public statements, columns, blog posts, interviews, etc. will all be “revisionised” and re-cast in a humorous light, with the inexorable charges of “libs” not getting that person’s wacky sense of humour.
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