It’s supremely difficult to have much respect for an opinion when it is based on statements not put into the proper context. Once again, the conservatives of this nation are taking comments made by U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor out of context – in a savage attempt to paint her as a racist. The latest (not the first and surely not the last) is Fox News Republican political commentator Andrea Tantaros, who proves only slightly better (because she at least recognizes how politically stupid this line of attack is) than notorious bigots/haters Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich.
Here is an excerpt from her column on the Fox News Web site:
The verdict is in: Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich think Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor, is a racist. Why? They start (and finish) with these remarks:
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
Yup, sounds like racism to me. And of course if any white man would have said the reverse he’d be vilified.
Any Republican assault that appears shrill to the electorate will backfire and damage our brand.
However, calling her a racist — though intellectually honest — is politically most unwise. The visual is even worse: two, old white guys angrily battling a minority female (I’m having flashbacks of the partial birth abortion bill passage when President Bush was flanked by all men in dark suits and grey hair. Not a woman in sight. It wasn’t pretty). This is not the picture, or the fight, we want.
Tantaros joins the same sad extreme right-wing talking points and tries to paint Judge Sotomayor as a racist with out-of-context comments. It’s intellectually dishonest and highly intentional.
It looks bad, for Republicans, because it is bad, for the diversity-challenged and empathy-resistant Republicans.
Fox News:
http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/28/tantaros_sotomayor_obama/
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