Wow, that did not take long. John Yoo takes a weak swipe at Sotomayor from the AEI perch. http://blog.american.com/...
(Josh Marshall spotted it right quick).
Below is a letter I could not help but draft in response. Feel free to improve it, and have fun with it.
Thanks, TUG
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Mr. Yoo:
So, in light of your rather brief but dim 4 paragraph article about the intellectual shortcomings of Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor, can we expect that your position will be the party talking point - Sotomayor: not radical, just not a standout intellectual?
First of all, busy day over at AEI? That is the best you could come up with?
Does this come from the same entity that worked with Karl Rove to attack your opponent's strength and make them defend it as a weakness - sort of a swiftboat approach to the Supreme Court?
Also, do you honestly understand your own reputation?
Do people know that you clerked for Justice Thomas? Is that where you get your authority on intellectual lightweights in the judiciary? Was Clarence Thomas the very best GHW Bush had to choose from? Is that what you are getting at - we have made this mistake before? Oh, and you brought up the issue of race, not me, by the way. You listed the Hispanic distinction from the other justices you mentioned regardless of who President Obama may have considered. I didn't know you and Barrack were close like that.
Seriously, Souter was the lightweight, not Thomas - did I get that right?
You have quite a record, what with executive authority being carte blanche for waterboarding and "enhanced interrogation" - Geneva Convention, Schmeneva Convention. Apparently you would think Colin Powell an intellectual lightweight as well since he, a soldier who had actually dealt with combat, opposed you on your desecration of the Geneva Convention. I am aglow with respect and admiration for you.
Even more curious is that you point out that you filed an amicus brief for a client in a case Sotomayor ruled against, is still pending, and she very well could rule against you again...and you dismiss her as having too much empathy in her earlier ruling. Not a self-serving statement on your part at all - nope, not one bit.
As to your direct comment on empathy - you were aware of her opinion hostile to the claimants on the TWA flight. Nice try, Mr. Yoo.
Last, I will give you the benefit of the doubt to say that you entered the legal profession with some modicum of integrity. You pissed a great deal away in the name of loyalty to one George W Bush. I hope it was worth it. But what you have left you are giving to AEI? Now I question your intellect in spite of your credentials. They took from you, and yet you give them more. You fall for that shit every time.
You both sadden and sicken me. You are but a mere ugly footnote to the history of this republic.