Obama’s Political Games: The Rush to Confirm Sotomayor vs Roberts and Alito

  The president is calling for a quick confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor, and he is calling the controversy surrounding her racist statement  nothing more than political games and politics as usual.

What I hope is that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this process, and Congress, in the past.”

‘Some in Washington who are attempting to draw old battle lines and playing the usual political games, pulling a few comments out of context to paint a distorted picture of Judge Sotomayor’s record.”

  We are talking about a Supreme Court appointee here– a lifetime appointment. There needs to be a “rigorous evaluation,” as the president put it, this is not something that you rush through. Examining both her record as well as her past statements is part of the process, it is not “bogging down the process” as the president also claimed. Her past statements say as much about Sotomayor as her record does. Every part of a nominee’s life is fair game is it not? Ask Justice Thomas or Robert Bork.

  What the president calls political gamesmanship and ideological “brinksmanship” today, he once considered part of the process. He called both Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito qualified to be on the Supreme Court but voted against both of them them. Was this not due to ideological “brinksmanship”? Was this not just more political gamesmanship?

  Both Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito believe in a strict, originalist interpretation of the constitution; something that the president does not. He believes that the constitution is a living document ans needs to change with the times, that is why he opposed both of President Bush’s nominees. That is based on ideological “brinksmanship”, that is voting on a person’s ideology rather than their qualifications.

  Now president is claiming that we are supposed to overlook ideology and vote merely on if a nominee is qualified to be on the Supreme Court. A total reversal on his position while a senator who opposed conservative judges. Funny how his opinion differs with regard to whether he agrees or disagrees with a judge’s philosophy.

  You cannot have it both ways. A nomination to the Supreme Court is probably one of the most important decisions that a president can make and the process should not be taken lightly. There needs to be a full, hard hitting confirmation process. The process is designed to take time so that a candidate can be fully vetted (a process the president seems to have trouble with when it comes to cabinet appointments) before they arrive to take a seat on the highest court in the land.

  Eventually Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed, she will take a seat on the Supreme Court, but before that day comes she needs to go through the ” rigorous examination” that all nominees to the Supreme Court go through. No matter how impatient the president is.