Originally published on May 26, 2009 at Yo Mama For Obama
The GOP’s stupidity is unrelenting. They believe that President Obama should wait until August to select the next Supreme Court justice. Sure, morons: then you guys can recess in September, regardless of whether or not the confirmation process is sufficiently complete, and create a boondoggle in President Obama’s administration.
Fuhgettaboudit! President Obama is so much smarter than that, plus he is much too disciplined a planner to ever allow that to happen. He would never allow such an important appointment to go down until the last minute. Plus, he is showing respect for the job and the candidate by having the foresight to allow the appointee some time to acclimate to her new surroundings, the caseloads and the nuances of the job. The GOP STILL is in denial about the wisdom, persistence and common sense that our president embodies. They went public yesterday with their argument that an appointment should not be made until August and followed that potentially chaotic decision with the thought that any nominee could do the required case reading while going through the confirmation process. Stupid idiots. Have they no regard for preparedness? Paul Krugman, in his Op-Ed piece ("State of Paralysis") in the New York Times on May 24, 2oo9, speaks to the literal death of the GOP:
To be blunt: recent events suggest that the Republican Party has been driven mad by lack of power. The few remaining moderates have been defeated, have fled, or are being driven out. What’s left is a party whose national committee has just passed a resolution solemnly declaring that Democrats are "dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals," and released a video comparing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to Pussy Galore.
Many savvy heads believe that it will take the Republican party at least ten years to recuperate and make a comeback. I say that we must be very careful; a knee jerk response to any event could create a backlash against those in power and could very well provide for a revival of the right wing morons. We need to tread carefully and always be cognizant that the Democratic occupancy of power is a tenuous thing, one that must always be cultivated, treated with respect and carried out with its primary concern being for the benefit of our citizens. If we become lulled into complacency and, worse yet, hubris, the first thing you know the GOP will swoop in and wrest the reins of power.
President Obama has just named the new candidate for the Supreme Court: Sonia Sotomayor. Her familial history mirrors that of President Obama. Her parents immigrated from Puerto Rico and settled in the South Bronx, right near Yankee Stadium, an area which at that time, was a hotbed for criminals and drug traffickers. Her father died when she was just a child and her mother worked two jobs and stressed above all else the value of education. Familial adversity, health setbacks (she has been a diabetic since age eight) and a rough and tumble childhood neighborhood be damned. Her mother made sure they rose above all the obstacles, that their beginnings would not bar a happier ending. Sound familiar?
Judge Sotomayor graduated first in her undergraduate class at Princeton and was editor of the "Yale Law Journal" while studying there for her law degree. All the Republicans have had to say so far on this appointment is that Judge Sotomayor legislates from the bench. Needless to say, they would have attached any old negative comment to our President’s bench choice. Remember: their party is the party of "No" and their agenda is distraction, distraction and distraction from taking actions that would benefit the citizenry, not just the elite. Only an anti-abortion, independently wealthy, male, white, religious zealot would have filled the bill for the Republicans. The ultimate irony is that it was Bush the First who put Sotomayor on the bench, the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1992,in the first place. Kind of funny when you realize it was also Bush the First who nominated Souter to the Supreme Court. There has been no recognition from the GOP regarding her journey of going from a very poor, hard knocks childhood to the pinnacles of academic excellence and professional success. Of course there wouldn’t be: look at George W. and John McCain, the latest Republican leaders. Both of them were legacy admissions to their Daddys’ colleges, George W. to Yale and McCain to the Naval Academy. Moreover, both men are damn proud and vocal about their uninspired graduations near the bottom of their classes. Excellence? They wouldn’t know what excellence was if it kicked them in the ass. Ditto for the Republican party. We already did "stupid" for eight years and it was a disaster across the board. Stupidity breeds stupidity.
So hats off to President Obama. He promised us a nominee who would be compassionate and empathic to the human condition while still having the intellect and common sense to judge legal matters that go to the very heart of our Constitution. It is a compliment to Justice Souter, a man who believes that the judicial branch must always be a safe haven from prejudice, politics and special interests, i.e. the judiciary must be independent, for it is from that branch of government that all of our freedoms flow.
President Obama did not kick the can down the road, as have all of our previous administrations on issues as the shortcomings and demise of Social Security and Medicare, regarding the subject of human worth and decency. If Judge Sotomayor’s concern for the next person gets her labelled a "legislator from the bench" (Oh my, how cutting a remark is that?), so be it. We all knew that, within the the stupid and ignorant framework of the GOP, the opposition would come up with something irrelevant and extraneous, if not downright made up.
Bravo, Mr. President. Your quest for intelligence, persistence and the greater good continues.