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Quote of the Day: On Republican Opposition to Sonia Sotomayor

Posted by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief in Politics, Religion.
Jul 3rd, 2009 | Comments

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, on GOP opposition to President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor:

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will begin confirmation hearings July 13, shrugged off the GOP concerns being raised about Sotomayor, saying some in the GOP were going to oppose any Obama pick – “even if the president had nominated Moses.”

Republicans “were going to object no matter who it was. And several of them have told me that privately,” Leahy told The Associated Press in an interview at his Vermont farmhouse.

Republicans did not respond to requests for comment about Leahy’s remarks.

P.S. Obama would never nominate Moses.

Moses followed the orders of a bush.

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casualobserver

If you'd like to hold up Leahy as the arbitrer of fairness as to dealing with judicial nominees, there is plenty to work with to disprove your implication..........

In 2002 Vermont Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy, then as now the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was a vocal opponent of Bush Third Circuit Court nominee D. Brooks Smith because of Smith's former membership in an all-male fishing club in Pennsylvania.

Today, Leahy is silent on the membership of Obama Supreme Court nominee and sitting Second Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the Belizean Grove, an elite, all-female club.

joegandelman

Where did I make any kind of implication or analyze anything in that quote? It was a lively quote so I posted it and used it to make a bad joke. No analysis on my part is in that post at all. We run lots of quotes and some are more analytical and sometimes I use it as a take off point. I used this as a take off point because I couldn't resist the joke (bad as it is)

JSpencer

Hey Joe, the joke wasn't that bad. ;-)

tidbits

Leahy being Leahy. As always, one of the most partisan members of the Senate. He'll use the inscription on his tombstone to criticize Republicans.

The R's aren't putting up that much opposition to Sotomayor. Wish they would. She will be confirmed and proceed to be the same ineffectual justice of the Supreme Court that she has been on the Court of Appeals. Go ahead, I dare you, name a single opinion she wrote that you even know the name of (hint - she didn't write Ricci, she just went along). She is all process before principle, form over substance. That's her history and it will be her legacy. If Obama wanted a liberal, their are liberals worthy of the Supreme Court; she just isn't one of them.

Leonidas

And the Democrats would have voted for anyone picked. After all they voted confirmation for a tax cheat to head the Treasury.

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