Sotomayor

I suppose, that since everyone else has put up several posts on the topic, I have to also. Jumping off a cliff-like.

Right now the Dems have enough votes to put Winnie-the-Pooh on the supreme court, and appear ready to do pretty much that. Sotomayors record shows her to be more of a me-too jurist than the sort of thinker who writes opinions. As long as race doesn't get brought up, she rules fairly conservatively, but if that or some issue of government power is at question, she will be a reliable vote for the statist left.

Overall, she will likely be a politically safe replacement for Souter, in that she will vote pretty much the same way he would have. What I don't see is the kind of sharp mind that persuades the other justices to a more extreme position on an opinion.

When Alito and Roberts were up for confirmation, it was obvious that the lefty members of the committee didn't like either of them much. It was also obvious who the smartest person in the room was each time, and it certainly wasn't any of the Senators. This time is was pretty clear that most of the senators rated higher than Sotomayor, with only Senator Franken being obviously lower on the IQ food chain.

During the Viet-Nam war there was a story about a Viet-Cong sympathizing farmer in a rice paddy off the end of the runway of an American air base. Whenever an airplane would take off, this farmer would pick up his rifle from the paddy and take a shot at the plane. A new pilot, observing this, reported this to the base commander and asked that the farmer be arrested.

The commander informed the lieutenant that the farmer had been there, shooting at the planes as long as anyone could remember, and to anyones knowledge, had never scored a hit. The feeling was that if he were picked up, the V.C. would send in someone else who might be a better shot.

In Sotomayor, we have that farmer.