The Wise Latina vs. The Kraker Klown Koalition (Or Why Can’t They Get the Cotton Out?)

Ah gentle readers….what a week for the The Kraker Klown Koalition (aka, KKK)!

What shall we call the Sotomayor nomination hearings, a: swift boating, high-tech lynching?

Whatever we call it, the good ol’boys from ‘the land of cotton’ (Sessions, Cornyn, Kyl, and Graham) took the wise Latina to the wood pile for a little jurisdictional correction. That it came in the form of a good ‘tongue lash’n’ is little different (in intent) than the form it would have taken in ‘the good old days’. However, in this case, what the good ol’boys got in return was a ‘gift wrapping’ in the form of lecture after lecture of finely parsed considerations of the manifold relationships between cases, precedents, legislative prerogative, and the constitution. It was a thing of beauty.

Sessions, Cornyn, Kyl, and Graham looked like churls (see for yourselves -- http://www.c-span.org/Supreme-Court-Sotomayor-Senate-Confirmation-Hearings.aspx). They looked, to your humble writer, like men with neither southern gallantry nor honor. They have shown (yet again) that the repubs are the party of white supremacist in defense of their way of life. Their hatred of Latinos was never so clear.

Further, their notion of supreme court judges as simply judicial umpires is utter nonsense. Supreme court cases involve the review of decisions of other courts and the supreme court is granted the authority of constitutional interpretation. This is not just "calling balls and strikes" (http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/box-score-calling-balls-and-strikes-at-sotomayors-confirmation-hearing/) as Chief Justice John G. Roberts said in the opening remarks of his own confirmation hearings in 2005:

“Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role.”

What a simpleton! Or does he think we, the American people, are simpletons?

In any case, with the white guys like Roberts in the judge system, it is highly likely that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion”!

(go girl!)