Beauty and the Pitbull
That would be Ann Coulter and James Carville on ABC’s “Good Morning America”. The topic of discussion was the Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
James was rather subdued and laid back compared to his usual pitbull aggressive rhetoric. Smiling, cordial and dropping the occassional one-liners as well as veering off subject.
Even Ann seemed to be reserved and holding back but was quick to counter James’ comments pointing out that once again selective racism is exhibited from the Democratic left.
“To understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.”
“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.”
~Judge Sonia Sotomayor from a Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture in 2001
Therein lies the problem.
Would that be a rich white male that has lived a life of wealth and privilege or a poor white male growing up in rural Appalachia? Certainly neither has anything in common other than they are white males. Where does the poor, oppressed, poverty-stricken white male fit into the racial hierarchy? The inference in the Judge’s statement is that all white males have lived a life devoid of hardships or “richness of experiences” and therefore unable to reach better conclusions than a wise Latina woman.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor is going to be nominated to the Supreme Court, make no mistake about that. As Dick Morris so succinctly stated to Sean Hannity, “It’s a runaway truck and you better get out of the way.”
Should she bypass Senate hearings for confirmation? Absolutely not. Will she be subjected to the same abuse as Clarence Thomas? No nor should she be. But a fair and thorough confirmation hearing should be conducted to allow the American people to see for themselves exactly what kind of Judge is being appointed to the highest court in our country.
And as for Ann Coulter and James Carville, we expect a better show next time you two get together.
