Politico----
Senate Republicans are finalizing their line of attack against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, casting the nominee as a biased, closed-minded judge who’s on the wrong side of Gun Rights and Affirmative Action cases.
In other words, they want to fire up the culture war issues heading into next week’s confirmation hearings — and perhaps awaken an apathetic conservative base that has been sluggish in its reaction to the Supreme Court nominee.
But GOP insiders are wary of going too far with attacks on the first Hispanic nominee to the Supreme Court, so they plan to needle her on very specific cases, rulings and writings. Expect to hear plenty about the liberal Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, the Ricci discrimination case and her views on guns.
It’s a strategy born in large part out of necessity. One month after President Barack Obama unveiled Sotomayor as his nominee, Republicans have yet to uncover a smoking gun in Sotomayor’s past, and her confirmation is seen by many as a fait accompli.
“I think the Sotomayor strategy is pretty obvious,” said one GOP leadership aide. “Respectfully asking questions but very pointedly asking about the appearance of favoritism. Americans don’t like the idea that a judge might play favorites.”
And that’s where Judiciary Committee Republicans hope to keep their focus.
“There are some real questions, and she has done some things that raise real questions in people’s minds — and they have to be explored,” said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, one of the senior Republicans on the committee.
Republicans realize that the concerted last-minute push to brand Sotomayor as a judge prone to partiality presents them with their only shot at creating at least some doubt among undecided senators.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a Judiciary Committee member, told POLITICO Tuesday that Sotomayor risked losing Democratic support if she emerged from the hearings with the appearance of a closed-minded jurist — a scenario, he warned, that could put Sotomayor in a tough spot.
“If she does poorly at the hearing and comes across as someone who seems as an activist, is not qualified for the job, that could hurt her,” Graham said. “That she embraces some judicial theories that would make red-state Democrats uncomfortable — that’s the only way I think she’d get off-track.”
Republicans began this final pre-hearing push Tuesday, taking to the Senate floor to pick apart specific parts of Sotomayor’s record.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) harped on Sotomayor’s appellate decision in the Ricci v. DeStefano case, which was reversed last week when the Supreme Court determined that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., had been discriminated against on a promotion exam.
“In the Ricci case — her third and final reversal of this term — Judge Sotomayor was so wrong in interpreting the law that all nine justices, of all ideological stripes, disagreed with her,” said McConnell. “As we consider her nomination to the Supreme Court, my colleagues should ask themselves this important question: Is she allowing her personal or political agenda to cloud her judgment and favor one group of individuals over another, irrespective of what the law says?”
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has latched onto Sotomayor’s work with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund — an organization, Sessions argued, that took an aggressive stance in criticizing the process of standardized testing.
He didn’t hesitate to mention that Sotomayor had worked for PRLDEF years prior to her decision in the Ricci case — and to suggest that her decision in the case had been influenced by her personal bias.
“And so we’re left to wonder: What role did the judge’s personal experience play when she heard the case? Did her personal views, as she as stated, quote ‘affect the facts she chose to see?’” Sessions said at the end of a scathing 18-minute floor speech.
Republicans are still undecided about whether to use delay tactics to slow down the Judiciary Committee’s vote. One Senate Republican aide said Tuesday that all options were on the table.
Democrats, knowing they probably have the votes to confirm Sotomayor, are almost dismissive of the GOP attacks.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) is casting Sotomayor as an experienced judge with a rich background — and as someone whose record puts her in the mainstream of American legal thought.
As McConnell and Sessions headed to the floor to blast Sotomayor, Leahy held a news conference to unveil a host of Sotomayor endorsements from law enforcement officials.
“It can be said with confidence that Judge Sotomayor is unquestionably a consensus judge on criminal justice issues,” Leahy said. “In fact, Judge Sotomayor’s criminal justice record proves she is a moderate judge whose decisions in criminal cases rarely differ from those of her colleagues on the federal bench.”
Asked earlier if the Republican critique of Sotomayor as a closed-minded jurist had any merit, Leahy responded only: “No.”
Sources: Politico, Day Life
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