Hello Sotomayor – Goodbye Senators

After the US Supreme enabled GW Bush to execute a coup d’état to seize the US presidency in 2000, my cynicism over the conduct of US Supreme Court went unbounded.

This was reinforced recently by the state of Minnesota's successful recount of the votes for a one of the US senate seats. If Minnesota could do it for a senate seat, why was Florida Governor Jeb Bush unable to perform one for the President of the US? At the time GW Bush's opponent had a plurality of popular votes that was over 500,000 nationally, so there was an imperative for a recount in Florida that never happened; the Supreme Court’s decision effectively blocked it and tossed the presidency to GW Bush.

The recent Senate Judicial Committee's interrogation of Judge Sonya Sotomayor as an Obama nominee to the highest court in the land, revived bad memories. Senators involved in the committee from both sides behaved like jackasses, preening for national attention.

Sotomayor had two issues the Republicans seized on: one had to do with an off the record comment indicating a wise female latina judge could make decisions better than another judge. The other issue had to do with legally supporting a New Haven Conn. City government decision by tossing out a city firemen’s test used as a basis for promotion to supervisory positions. The same questions were recycled daily and hourly. Both issues were answered ad nauseam with the same repeated replies. The process was an absurdity.

The zapped-out Republicans even reverted to ad hominem, hearsay attacks on Sotomayor such as: WE ARE TOLD YOU ARE A BULLY ON BENCH BY LAWYERS. ARE YOU A BULLY? After such interrogation by the Republicans, the Democratic senators on the committee should have blocked and gone to her aid – in the main, the wimps did not.

Sunday on CNN, two days after the hearings ended, Senate Democratic Judicial Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy called Republican Senator Sessions a racist to his face for his over the top questioning of Sotomayor. Leahy's too late amends probably stemmed from left wing criticism of his ineptitude at the hearings.

The Republicans called two firemen to testify who were denied promotion until reinstated by the Supreme Court decision. One was Hispanic; the other was Italian American. When the Italian American, challenged by dyslexia, read his testimony, he relentlessly followed the lines with his fingers.

I am certain that I would not want that troubled guy to command firefighters into a burning building; so, that would argue against a test to be determinative in promotion. Affirmative action yes or no is irrelevant in this case. Moreover, it demonstrates that the Wise Latina Lady's judgement on the firefighter was more on the ball than the majority decision of the US Supreme Court that insured his promotion.

Sotomayor is not main stream American. She is even not mainstream Puerto Rican from which stems her ethnic background. She is a Newyorican: a Puerto Rican born and raised in NYC. So she is a minority born within a minority; the fact she achieved her extraordinary level of success without major lobbying forces or old boy network behind her makes her exceptional.

As the membership of the US Supreme Court now stands, she will add some needed brain power and patience. She should drive the other judges crazy with her Wise Latina Lady sophistry. She came across uninteresting during the hearings; let us hope that this was due to caution or an over briefing by the White House.

My theory is that the best lawyers in the US are not in the US Justice Department, Attorney General's office and, most definitely, on the US Supreme Court. May we hope Sotomayor will be an exception. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA ret