Open Thread on Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing, Day 1
[Guest post by DRJ]
Day 1 of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee has concluded after a relatively brief session with opening statements by the Senators and Sotomayor. Questioning will begin tomorrow morning when the hearing resumes.
If anyone listened to all the opening statements, I salute you.
UPDATE: The Houston Chronicle has a photo of Sotomayor’s nephews dozing during the hearing. It’s hard enough for adults, it would be torture for kids.
— DRJ
Durbin sounded as if he was born and raised in Chicago. Rarely have I heard so many strawmen and lies since the last Obama speech.
Thomas Jackson (8ffd46) — 7/13/2009 @ 2:12 pmGee, I would have, but I had to organize my sock-drawer.
AD - RtR/OS! (eb7d4e) — 7/13/2009 @ 2:16 pmYou lose intelligence by watching these things. It’s just grandstanding and horribly inaccurate portrayals of what the law is and should be.
HowdySir (0d70bb) — 7/13/2009 @ 2:26 pmI listened to Franken’s statement until he started bashing Clarence Thomas and I changed channels. I’d rather watch the business channels, even though it’s equally depressing. One highly-regarded expert said she forecasts the unemployment rate will go to 13% or more and stay there for a year.
DRJ (6f3f43) — 7/13/2009 @ 2:30 pmI tuned the whole thing out after the first thing I heard this morning was how “… she’s the most qualified supreme court nominee EVAH!!!
Reminds me of the ad campaigns for cereal or soap — “NEW! IMPROVED!!! Which of course only means the outside of the container has been changed.
Didn’t they say the same thing about the last 4 or 5 justices? Starting with Thomas I think.
Anybody want to take bets that Sonia had a Che poster in her dorm room at college? Or a big
jcw46 (a93671) — 7/13/2009 @ 2:39 pm“¡LA RAZA!” sign on her door or on the wall?
I listened a bit twice, concluded that opening statements indicated (a) everyone on the panel has already made up their minds and (b) had nothing interesting to say, and decided that I’d rather ignore the whole thing until tomorrow.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 7/13/2009 @ 2:44 pmWe don’t need to “waterboard” captured terrorists. Just make them listen to those Senators speak (translated versions) for four or five hours. They will tell us everything they know if we would just stop playing those speeches. This is a true bi-partisian issue – the Republicans are just as bad as the Democrats. The only good news is that, being Vice-President, Joseph Biden cannot inflict himself on the witnesses and general public anymore.
Longwalker (4e0dda) — 7/13/2009 @ 2:55 pmSotomayor’s nephews would probably agree with you, Longwalker. I’ve updated the post to link a photo of them dozing during today’s hearing.
DRJ (6f3f43) — 7/13/2009 @ 3:14 pmI didn’t see it myself but the news is reporting Senator Lindsey Graham “told Sotomayor that ‘Unless you have a complete meltdown, you’re going to get confirmed. And I don’t think you will’ have a meltdown, he added quickly as Sotomayor sat listening, her face in a half-smile.”
Heh. Talk about faint praise.
DRJ (6f3f43) — 7/13/2009 @ 3:23 pmAnybody want to take bets that Sonia had a Che poster in her dorm room at college? Or a big
“¡LA RAZA!” sign on her door or on the wall?
Comment by jcw46 — 7/13/2009 @ 2:39 pm
I wouldn’t doubt it that she has both in the wardrobe in her chambers, now.
AD - RtR/OS! (eb7d4e) — 7/13/2009 @ 3:24 pmOne highly-regarded expert said she forecasts the unemployment rate will go to 13% or more and stay there for a year.
Chicago area unemployment is near 10% and much of the state is already in the 10-12% range. You’d never know it by listening to the TV news.
The spew that politicians like Durbin hurl are still being accepted as having basis in fact. The whole house of cards will collapse if the media ever starts to report anything close to fair and balanced coverage.
But that’s a big if.
Dan F (8ce868) — 7/13/2009 @ 3:34 pmWatch phrase of the day is fidelity to the law. Looks like Soto’s policy making days are over until after she’s confirmed.
I would never hire anyone who will say anything to get a job. But then again I’m not a liberal.
Terry Gain (6b2a64) — 7/13/2009 @ 5:00 pmI didn’t see it myself but the news is reporting Senator Lindsey Graham “
Look up the definition of, well, the word “pussy” in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Lindsey Graham.
Mark (411533) — 7/13/2009 @ 5:14 pmIf there is, after day one a need for Ed Whelan to correct Sen. Leahy, it will be very interesting to see what tomorrow brings. Apparently to some, it is indeed about race.
It is outrageous of Leahy to give his grossly misleading account of the Estrada nomination in a context that vilely insinuates that Republican opposition to Sotomayor is based on her Hispanic ethnicity.
Dana (57e332) — 7/13/2009 @ 5:50 pmI thought I read on DRUDGE REPORT that Sen. Frankin [D Mn] said that Sotomayor was the “most experienced” candidate for the Supreme Court “in the last 100 years.”
Hmm….That leaves out a bunch of people. Even some Libs too.
But I think I agree with him if we are talking about the last 100 days.
Mike H. (5d26cc) — 7/13/2009 @ 5:58 pmLook up the definition of, well, the word “pussy” in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Lindsey Graham
Is that irony or just a paradox. “Lindsey Graham” and “pussy” were not 2 words I ever expected to see on the same page, let alone in the same sentence.
Gazzer (10bcc0) — 7/13/2009 @ 6:03 pm…Senator Lindsey Graham “told Sotomayor that ‘Unless you have a complete meltdown, you’re going to get confirmed. And I don’t think you will’ have a meltdown, he added quickly as Sotomayor sat listening, her face in a half-smile.”
The LAT has the balance of Graham’s quote above,
But Graham also signaled his discomfort with Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” remark. “If I ever said something remotely like that, my career would have been over,” he said.
Yep. Obama won.
Dana (57e332) — 7/13/2009 @ 6:13 pmComment by Mike H. — 7/13/2009 @ 5:58 pm
Bill Douglas must be rolling in his grave like a dervish.
AD - RtR/OS! (eb7d4e) — 7/13/2009 @ 6:29 pmI watched a few minutes of the display by the pitiful little man Chuckie Schumer, puked and turned the TV off.
Scrapiron (996c34) — 7/13/2009 @ 8:42 pmBoring, although the Dems were frustrating at times. Franken wins the Wiggling Wiener of the Day award.
JerryT (990946) — 7/14/2009 @ 6:12 amI’d like to express the depths of my discontent over the inadequacy of the nominee, the banality of her interrogators, and the morbidly dysfunctional media melodrama unfolding on notional TV, but the words won’t come. The enormity of it all defies description, or at least my ability to mark it.
I can’t talk about it, nor can I watch it, it sickens me.
Ropelight (bb3af5) — 7/14/2009 @ 6:38 am