Republican Utah Sen. Orrin Hypocrite Hatch already is backpedaling from his prior support for Sonia Sotomayor (President Barack Obama’s pick to replace David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court). Check out these comments of a conversation between Hatch and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. You do not even need to see the video to sense the defensive posture being assumed by Sen. Hatch who, along with other obstructionists, are laying the groundwork for automatically opposing Sonia Sotomayor because she is President Obama’s nominee:
MITCHELL: Let me ask you this Senator, I mean George Herbert Walker Bush first nominated her to the bench and…
HATCH: Wait a minute Andrea, wait a minute, I was on the Judiciary committee back then. At that time a district court judge was really effectively by the Senate so in this case both the…
He already is on the defensive.
MITCHELL: I understand that both senators from NY …
HATCH: They had a one for one deal so I, she was chosen by a Democrat and George Herbert Walker Bush, really basically had no choice but to appoint her now…
MITCHELL: You’re saying by senatorial courtesy — she was Pat Moynihan’s choice for the court. Let me ask you about your own vote in 1998, sir, I mean you voted for her, did you not? Or do I have that wrong? You were one of the seven Republicans.
HATCH: Well, let me just say this, I think the media tries to make something out of that because George Herbert Walker Bush was president.They shouldn’t. She was basically picked by Sen. Moynihan, a Democrat. In 1998, for the Circuit Court of Appeals, I did vote for her because I believe in giving the president due deference, especially for Circuit Court of Appeals nominations, but now we’re talking about…
Setting up his party’s partisan opposition to Sonia Sotomayor, Hatch goes out of his way to downplay the fact that she was nominated by George H.W. Bush. Then he ends with the all-too familiar desperation tactic of the far right: blame the media. That’s sad.
Crooks and Liars:
http://thirdbranch.crooksandliars.com/node/28452
