Cowards.
Republican Senate leaders won't call U.S. Supreme Court nomineeSonia Sotomayor a racist. But they're not opposing Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich doing so to rile up the out-of-power party.
Given that President Gingrich and Boss Limbaugh run the GOP, this is appropriate. But as much as elected Republicans may try to hide their bigoted attacks on Sotomayor by letting others fling the mud, that distinction isn't going to be made by Latinos watching on the sidelines. We know who pulls the strings in the modern GOP, and the longer they drag this out, and the nastier they behave, the more they'll lose a demographic that is projected to be 30 percent of the American population in 2050.
Without young voters or Latinos, the GOP can't win. They've done a fantastic job of alienating the former with their opposition to equality, and they're about to finish off the latter courtesy of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings.
Considering that the Census Bureau expects the nation to be only 46 percent non-Hispanic, single-race white in 2050, the GOP's continued shoddy treatment of people who don't look like President Newt or Boss Limbaugh is only solidifying their journey toward fringe status.