Legal Commentary

Sotomayor Hearings Start Today

By Big Tent Democrat

This is the week that will make Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R-AL), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a Republican star. Here is the man that is the very embodiment of the Republican Party that emerged out of the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-everybody not a white male party. He is what the Republican Party is today - a reactionary, resentful, paranoid, white Southern male.

In the Sotomayor hearings, I will be watching for two things - (1) will Democratic Senators try to fight and win the framing wars on right wing judicial activism? (Sotmayor's confirmation is a foregone conclusion imo.); (2) Will Republicans allow (and Democrats encourage) the GOP image to be cemented as the party against women, Latinos, African Americans, Asians and "Others" - refighting "The Lost Cause"? The NYTimes provides a list of "experts" who point to other things to "look for":

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 13, 2009 (boomark / email).