Virginians critique nominee
Published: May 27, 2009
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Lauren Cohen Bell, a political-science professor at Randolph-Macon College, says she often errs when making predictions, but not this time.
As soon as she heard about Justice David H. Souter's retirement, she said she thought Sonia Sotomayor would be President Barack Obama's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bell worked on Sotomayor's stalled nomination to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals throughout 1998, when Bell was a fellow on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Republican-controlled Senate eventually confirmed Sotomayor.
There was talk of a candidate with a Hispanic background during the last couple of nominations, and Obama had indicated he was interested in appointing a woman, Bell said.
Also, Bell said, "she came in with significant amounts of support from Republicans -- I think that makes her attractive." President George H.W. Bush nominated Sotomayor to a federal district court judgeship in 1991.
"This is somebody whose credentials are just impeccable," Bell said of the nominee.
U.S. Sens. Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday praised Sotomayor, saying she has a compelling personal story and strong legal credentials.
"In every way imaginable, Sonia Sotomayor has lived the American dream," said Kaine, the Democratic National Committee chairman who issued statements in English and in Spanish.
But Richard A. Viguerie, a veteran Virginia political activist who now is chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said Sotomayor's nomination is "an enormous opportunity for conservatives to define President Obama as a radical liberal in a way that Republicans have so far failed to do."
Bell noted that in 1997, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., had questioned Sotomayor closely about concerns she had expressed about the federal sentencing guidelines being too hard in places.
The guidelines since have been changed in ways consistent with the positions that she took, Bell said.
"Even though she is well-qualified, has tons of judicial experience, has been supported by Republicans, what they'll do is try to paint her as a judicial activist," Bell predicted.
Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or
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Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or .
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Reader Reactions
Please explain the ‘religious pressure being brought to bear upon students and faculty at the service academies’. Also, what is your concern about the ‘hard-core segment of the military’ who happen to be Christian? If you’re not about alternatives, then why did you only mention right-wing ones in your post? What is a ‘right wing anarchist tea bagger’? Anarchists, by definition, are opposed to any authority, so why would right wingers opposed to government power be a threat to you? I guess statements are only ‘wild’ when someone else makes them - not you.
Dave, I’m not “intent upon dividing, demonizing,“ etc. Merely in ridiculing wild statements such as, “Either these people get voted out of office, or…“ and “left-wing takeover… through the courts.“ You mean the courts that are currently packed with Republican appointees? The closest we’ve had to a “takeover” through the courts was the 2000 election’s Supreme Court appointment of Bush.
I don’t lay awake worrying about fundamentalist Christians, but I am concerned about a hard-core segment of the military who regard themselves as warriors for Christ and religious pressure being brought to bear upon students and faculty at the service academies. However, I’m not anxious about “alternatives”, left or right: I have confidence in the basic good sense and respect for the Constitution of the American people.
yellowhound: Yes. A left-wing takeover of the government done in broad daylight through the courts that don’t have to answer to voters. Please note Janet Napolitano has also tipped the government’s hand as to who the REAL terrorist threats are. I don’t know what a ‘right-wing anarchist tea bagger’ is other than a sound-bite epithet. Do you know what it means? I don’t know what alternative will happen, but one will because people like you are intent upon dividing, demonizing, stereotyping and hating. Being from the ‘fundamentalist Christian element’ that keeps you awake at night, I choose to pray - and vote - that it won’t happen. What are you doing other than fanning the flames?
Oh, what the heck, let’s contemplate alternatives:
1) The South can secede from the Union.
2) Right-wing anarchist tea-baggers can stage a “people’s revolution”.
3) The fundamentalist Christian element within our military can stage a coup and install a military dictatorship.
Hmmm… have I missed anything?
mikeyt: We’ll know after the next election. Either these people get voted out of office or… I don’t want to contemplate alternatives.
Dave, you’re right to a large degree. Republicans did abandon their principles and became no better than the Democrats. Problem is, while the Republicans were becoming Democrats, the Democrats were becoming socialists. Now we have people who are trying to let government run the people rather than vice-versa, as the Constitution requires.
What has to happen is people have to get mad and take their country back, take their Constitution back, run the socialists to the curb and tell the new Democrats to get back on board or get left behind. We have to clean house in Washington. The tea parties were the first inkling that this is being recognized. Supposedly there are plans to do it again to a larger degree on July 4. We’ll know then if the people truly are mad.
Well, if Republicans don’t like the way the judicial winds are blowing then they need to go look in a mirror. They abandoned their principles and sold out their supporters. The Democrats won by default, now it’s time to pay the piper. Watching and reading about Republicans’ ‘concern’ over this won’t work. People have lost respect - and trust - for them and the field has been abandoned.
throw a dog a bone and they still complain..just take it back lol. omg, the repubs should be happy, at least it isn’t a democratic judge being appointed lol,but i guess her being hispanic is the problem…believe me, it isn’t her issues lol
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