White guy talk.

I confess I haven’t been watching the confirmation hearings of judge Sotomayor for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, nor listening to them. It’s been a lot easier to avoid doing so than it was ducking the coverage of Michael Jackson’s death and its aftermath, quite frankly. Apparently our news outlets don’t consider this “newsy” enough. In any case, what I’ve heard and seen have been snippets of interrogations by Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama… I think the “R” stands for “Racist”) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina, a.k.a. “McCain’s brain”), also a bit from Dr. Coburn (R-Oklahoma). Certainly on that side of the partisan divide, the Judiciary committee comes off as a kind of cracker-town. And because the Democrats are, on the whole, utterly spineless and all-too-willing to fold on matters of principle, it is very often the core “values” of these southern conservative senators that end up carrying the most weight.

Sure, they won’t get their way- most likely- on the Sotomayor nomination, but that’s to be expected. They are in the minority, the presidency is no longer in their hands, so as Jon Stewart has so aptly put it, “it’s supposed to taste like a shit taco.” The problem is more with the timidity of the other party. Leave us face it – Sotomayor, distinguished jurist that she is, is not exactly a leftist version of Justice Scalia. Even with a virtually filibuster-proof majority, a Democratic president would never dare make that dramatic an appointment. Frankly, if Obama had named someone like, I don’t know, Jonathan Turley, he would have gotten howls of protest from the Republicans… exactly what he’s gotten with the appointment of a relative centrist, in the mold of Justice Souter (whom Sotomayor would be replacing). It’s the same dynamic as with proposing a single-payer health care system instead of some market-driven hybrid destined to fail – they’re going to call you a socialist anyway, so why not go for the gold?

Still, even though we’ve reached the point in American political culture where in order to be considered for nomination to the Supreme Court a judge must declare his/her love for gun ownership, disavow any position on abortion, and practically dance on Emmett Till’s grave, the Republicans are finding a great deal to complain about with this nominee. It’s frankly laughable to hear Jeff Sessions – who considered the voting rights act a “piece of intrusive legislation” and who had no problem with the KKK until some were caught smoking dope – and Lindsey Graham raising the banner against discrimination. Have they taken a look at their own panel? Are there a whole lot of black and Latino members of the Judiciary Committee? The Senate itself? Any chance that “reverse racism” is going to whittle away at their advantage in that august body? They need to calm down a bit. Though I suspect this is more about positioning the G.O.P. as a defender of Joe Six-pack (a.k.a. white working guys) than any genuine concern about the nominee. (See: Pat Buchanan)