CNN Poll: Conservative Attacks on Sotomayor Are Working
Friday, July 10, 2009 at 12:47 pm
The new CNN poll on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court seems to confirm the Democratic angst that moved the hearings to next week, after Republicans had asked for months of preparation. Only 47 percent of Americans support the nomination outright; 40 percent oppose it. Just as ominous is this question:
Suppose the upcoming confirmation hearings indicate that Sonia Sotomayor is qualified and has no ethical problems. Do you think U.S. Senators would be justified or unjustified in voting against her if they disagree with her stance on current issues such as abortion or gun control?
Only 49 percent of people say this would be unjustified; 47 percent say it would be justified. By contrast, 54 percent of Americans said that an ideological vote against John Roberts would have been unjustified. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the full-court press against Sotomayor’s “wise Latina justice” statement and the spinning of the Ricci case have had an effect.
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6 Comments
Comment posted July 10, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
Or this poll could just be an outlier. It's hard to see why attacks that weren't working weeks ago, when people were actually talking about Sotomayor, would be working now, when no one is.
Comment posted July 10, 2009 @ 5:59 pm
Not to mention the fact that for six years she was a member of a group that gave an award to someone who'd proposed genocide.
Genocide? Yep.
P.S. Maybe before his next “birthers” outburst Weigel can tell us why Snopes, Wikipedia, and Obama himself have given differing accounts of his birth hospital. I mean, if you claim for a fact that he was born in HI, shouldn't you get your story straight on which hospital it was?
Comment posted July 10, 2009 @ 8:24 pm
I disagree, I think a healty discussion is good this is important and no opinion should be considered as out of bounds. She must stand on her statements and previous actions as a judge and be able to defend them as necessary. People should form thier own opinions as well as congress. Personally I don't see them as conservative or liberal opinions. I think that if you say ” because you are a latina woman you are some how wiser or smarter than a white male or anyone else”, you should be able to defend that no matter what context it is used in.
Comment posted July 10, 2009 @ 11:11 pm
What would the birther crazies prefer, more crooks like Scalia who legislate from the bench? It seems if the conservatives would just admit that they want the opposite of what they say it would be easier for the rest of us to get our heads around their demands. They want a fake birth certificate that shows Obama being born in Kenya or Madagascar or Katmandu? Go ahead and make one because the birthers are too ill in the head to not accept a fake written in crayon. Why should anyone stand in between people who want to believe lies, who demand to be lied to, and won't stand for a truth that while simple interferes with their rich fantasy lives? Why shouldn't delusional lunatics be put in charge of this country if that is truly what they want?
Oh, don't let elections stop you-or the will of the people.
It is more than bad enough that Obama is turning out to be Bush with some brains, so bad in fact that I find it offensive that imbecilic waterheads are obsessing over irrelevant details (birth certificate) when Obama has agreed with Bush/Cheney that he can detain people proven innocent in a court of law because they might be brown and religiously incorrect. People who waste their time arguing about stupid teabagger fantasies are missing the fact that our Constitution, as battered as it was under Cheney-Bush, is taking a continued shellacking under the watch of a man alleged to know better, a highly educated Ivy League constitutional lawyer. Monomaniacal power for the executive is wrong no matter what party the tyrant serves.
Comment posted July 12, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
It's a shame that the GOP has chosen to crank up the campaign of smears and hatred against a judge who's actually quite a good choice for them – Sotomayor is moderate to conservative, appointed by Republican George HW Bush; she wrote three opinions favoring anti-abortion protesters and anti-abortion policies. In 96 cases alleging racial discrimination, Sotomayor and the panel rejected the claim of racial discrimination roughly 78 times. Sotomayor also was tougher on convicted criminals than her colleagues during her six years as a federal district judge, sending more convicts to prison and handing out longer sentences than her colleagues. In the Ricci firefighter case, Sotomayor simply followed existing law; the Supreme Court in overturning that decision created new precedent (which is fine for the Supreme Court to do, but it is not the job of a lower court; Sotomayor rightly followed precedent in this case.) It's not clear what Republicans hope to gain with a fight here, since the next nominee is hardly likely to be more conservative.
Comment posted July 16, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
They republican attacks against Judge Sotomayer may be working for the republican base, but most people are seeing the republican grilling of Judge Sotomayer as more sour grapes that they are no longer running things. On display is lots of republican stupidity. Republicans spewing the same old same old thing is turning my stomach. I'm so happy that all this republican vitriol will come to nothing.
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