Even as the right prepares to oppose Sonia Sotomayor's nomination, they're finding it increasingly difficult to work up a proper fury. Partly that's because there's nearly universal agreement from people who have worked with Sotomayor.
The American Bar Association gave Sotomayor its highest rating on Tuesday. The vote was unanimous, based on hundreds of confidential interviews with Sotomoayor's colleagues on and off the bench, and a review of her opinions by scholars and practitioners.
Partly it's the support she has from national organizations.
Then the Democrats rolled out endorsements by leading law enforcement organizations, including the National District Attorneys Association, the National Sheriffs Association and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.
Partly it's her support from members of Republican administrations.
Later this week former FBI Director Louis Freeh is expected to formally endorse her nomination in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Freeh got to know Sotomoayor when the two served as federal trial judges in Manhattan.
You even have Lindsey Graham, who was on the "let's delay Sotomayor just to screw with Obama" train a few days ago saying that he might vote for her.
It's not that she won't catch flack over her positions. Of course she will. It's not that the Republicans won't distort those positions to try and make points. Of course they will. And it's not as if they won't curry favor with their Glennbeckistan base by pulling such stunts as dragging a firefighter into a Supreme Court hearing to dazzle us with his legal acumen. That's a given.
But two months from now, the castings generated by worms like Jeff Sessions will be forgotten. Instead, the narrative from the right will be all about how reasonable Republicans were toward Sotomayor. They'll be going on about the horrors faced by Clarence Thomas. They'll Whine Along With Sarah about the unfairness of how the press maligns their most accomplished quitter.
And you know what? To some extent, they'll be right. Sonia Sotomayor won't take the pounding in the press that Palin has. She won't be the subject of all those late night jokes. She won't get an entry in the urban dictionary. Which will generate another round of limbaugh-boo-hoos about the unfairness of it all.
What the right will completely ignore is that Sotomayor is deserving of a Supreme Court nomination. She earned it. The reason she'll take a smoother path through D.C., despite the best efforts of the GOP to generate roadbumps, has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of rediscovered comity on the part of Republicans. It has to do with President Obama putting forth a nominee who is highly-respected and capable. It has to do with her not being an automaton capable of nothing more than repeating rote talking points and hewing to unwavering ideology. No one who has paid the slightest attention (and who at least occasionally steps outside the Bill O'sphere) would pretend that Sotomayor isn't smart or experienced enough for the appointed task.
The problem the Republicans are having is caused by their own set of extremely lax requirements: can you repeat the talking points? Rigid ideology + half-decent camera presence = Republican star. That's a hurdle snails can cross. And they do. The Republican base doesn't see knowledge as a part of leadership. They don't value innovation. They place a negative value on competence.
Stupid still has it's appeal, otherwise Glenn Beck wouldn't have a show, but it's a vanishing appeal in a world that's less and less manageable through sloganeering. Maybe, sometime in the near future, some Republican leader will be able to steer the party out of its self-destructive teabaggery. Maybe not. With every day that passes, the rigidity of the party hardens like concrete.
Two months from now, Republicans will be whining again about the unfairness of the media. In the meantime, Sonia Sotomayor will be on the Supreme Court.