Comments on: Obama: Congress And Conservatives Should Stop Game Playing On Sotomayor

By: Democrats Who Targeted Thomas And Estrada Weep Over Sotomayor’s ‘Diversity’ And ‘Story’ « Start Thinking Right

Sun, 31 May 2009 15:34:21 +0000

[...] and his liberal allies are saying, “Stop drawing old battle lines” against my Supreme Court pick. Obama loves to present himself as taking a lofty position [...]

By: CStanley

CStanley — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:09:25 +0000

I agree with your point, mikkel, but the fact is that he does put the emphasis on ideology. If his opinion is like yours, that SCOTUS and other nominees are fair game for dissent based on ideology, then he should say so, but have a fair discussion with his ideological opponents.

But as EEllis points out, this is how Obama plays politics. He claims that he wants to move past the old debates, but what he really intends to do is short circuit the debates in such a way that his side wins. And so far, he gets away with this because his personality and tenor are such that he sounds so reasonable even when he's saying unreasonable things (and of course, his timing is perfect because the public does feel that the GOP is more guilty of hyperpartisanship and knee jerk ideology.)

By: EEllis

EEllis — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:38:20 +0000

He's (Obama) is playing politics. He calls on both Dems and Rep, right like he is going to have trouble with dems. Just like when he and the Dem congress gave us that bloated stimulus bill, he them gave a speech about hoe he and America would be watching the states to make sure the money wasn't wasted. To bad he wasn't watching Washington instead where the real waste occurred. More political BS.

By: keelaay

keelaay — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:39:12 +0000

Obama is requesting speed and timeliness. The battle lines are drawn over Sotomayor with time being wasted posturing over a quotation that is indeed important, but being taken out of context. (You know the one.) Hold a hearing and grill her over what the heck she mean (or actually read the speech)… and then move ahead way or the other. Heck, there a MV editor who jumped right in by mis-quoting the sentence having heard it from a family member!

By: mikkel

mikkel — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:36:43 +0000

Obama shouldn't have put the emphasis on ideology (obviously I think that considering my prior post) but on the validity of their arguments. He briefly touched on it — how if she is so emotional and doesn't rule from law etc then to find concrete examples in hundreds of decisions to make the argument — but that should be his main frame of reference.

By: GreenDreams

GreenDreams — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:24:39 +0000

Yes, CS, let the right continue to spit and fume over every single issue. You go, girl.

I love it.

By: CStanley

CStanley — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:07:00 +0000

EEllis is right.

Here's Senator Obama in 2006:

"We need to recognize, because Judge Alito will be confirmed, that, if we're going to oppose a nominee that we've got to persuade the American people that, in fact, their values are at stake," Obama said.

"Obama cast Alito as a judge "who is contrary to core American values, not just liberal values."

Compared to President Obama 2009:

But what I hope is that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this process

By: StockBoySF

StockBoySF — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:42:45 +0000

Obama: “Judge Sotomayor ought to be on the bench when the Supreme Court decides what cases to hear this year and I’m calling on Democrats and Republicans to be thorough, and timely in dealing with this nomination.”

That's something new in judicial confirmations…. Bush would have claimed that the Dems were being obstructionists. However Obama is calling for both parties to timely deal with this. Obama is not demonizing the Republicans as Bush did for years. I think this is further evidence of Obama attempting to “play nice” with Republicans.

By: EEllis

EEllis — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:42:04 +0000

That's hypocritical in the extreme. It's absurd to expect anyone no to get raked over the coals for such an important position. The senate hasn't addressed it yet so it's hard for anyone to claim that anythings interfering with a timely vote. Not to mention Obama has been more than happy to play politics with judicial nominees before when he was in the Senate. That kind of crap escalates the situation not the other way around. When you think about it it's kind of funny. He says “don't play politics” but it's just a political gambit to make opponents look bad if they do what he would do.