Posted on 06/05/2009 7:50:08 AM PDT by markomalley
When greeting Judge Sonia Sotomayor this week, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama made sure to tell her something loud enough for the assembled reporters to hear.
"You will get a fair hearing before this committee," Sessions told President Obama's Supreme Court nominee with emphatic gestures and tone.
That greeting wasn't just pleasantries. It was a promise born out of his own experience.
President Reagan nominated Sessions to be a federal judge, but the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected him 23 years ago this week.
He is now the top Republican on that panel.
"That is a very odd thing," Sessions told CNN in an interview in his Senate office. "Somebody says it gives new meaning to the word irony."
Talking about that irony brings back a flood of memories that he would rather forget.
"It was not a pleasant event, I got to tell you. It was really so heartbreaking to me," Sessions said.
(snip)
Democrats pounded him during his marathon confirmation hearings. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, was quoted at the time as saying he was "concerned about the racist remarks that Mr. Sessions has acknowledged that he made."
Sessions now says, "That was totally distorted of what the reality was, and maybe he thought so at the time. He was getting some information from some very aggressive outside groups that were driving this entire message."
(snip)
The story of how he unexpectedly got that position is wrapped in another irony.
In 1986, then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter crossed party lines to cast a decisive vote against the Sessions nomination. Until recently, Specter was the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee.
It was only because Specter abruptly left the GOP and became a Democrat that Sessions moved up in seniority and gained such influence --- at such a critical time.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
nice to hear someone besides white people can be RACIST!
Why would anyone care if they are called racist? I’ve been a strong supporter of border control for a long time now and being labeled a racist doesn’t even phase me.
White Guilt in action.
Beat up on good “White” folks for being “racist” and then watch the good White folk try hard to prove that they are not “racists” -—
This way the libs have it BOTH ways, they keep our guys off the Courts, and they get theirs in!
Be sure to lube up Jeff.
Beat up on good “White” folks for being “racist” and then watch the good White folk try hard to prove that they are not “racists” -—
This way the libs have it BOTH ways, they keep our guys off the Courts, and they get theirs in!
Liz Cheney showed how to defeat this argument: simply reject the false premise and stay on message. In other words, don't defend against a lie. Don't give the lie credibility.
Uh, Sessions, the left is gonna call you a racist every time you don’t bend over for their agenda. If you vote against Sotomayor for, say, judicial activism, you will STILL be branded a racist. So you’re giving Sotomayor some cover here don’t mean jack as to the impact on you.
Good for you,
conservatives have inadvertantly trained the left to charge “racism” at the drop of a hat because we have let it work.
Let them get a taste of their own medicine!
STE=Q
Like being threatened with a plastic hammer by a child. Yank it out of their hand and watch the tears come to their eyes.
Precisely.
Soto-Mayor is the racist. Her speeches have condemned her.
Will the GOP find the guts to oppose her?
I doubt it.
“Am I supposed to shut up and stop stating the truth because you called me a racist? Are you so unable to refute the truth that you have to resort to some lame accusation?”
I think it is important that we freepers, as well as senate Republicans, treat Sonia Sotomayor with the same respect and civility that Democrats have shown Republican judicial nominees. Exactly the same.
Win or lose, there better be blood on the freaking floor.
I want to see that sick racist scumbag Sotomayor in tears.
CNN is pulling this to cover for the ‘wise Latina’. The theme of the headline and story is ‘See, just because some crazy person calls you a racist doesn’t mean you are one’.
Exactly. I see no reason to acknowledge being called a racist when my argument is correct. Not getting a reaction has an amazing effect on them. They just don’t know how to cope with it.
The ididot GOPers don’t get it. They are playing into Donk hands. When it’s their term to ratify judges the gloves come all the way off, no amount of mud-throwing is too much. Only the result matters.
When it’s our turn to approve judges suddenly we are the more civil, friendly, bipartisan party.
The hearings for Sotomeyer should be the most vicious, personal, in your face, invective filled hate fests since, since??, well since the last Bush nominee was held and and shot down, or Bork was crucified, or Thomas was trashed, or Estrada was borked.
We need warriors now not. Let them feel the wrath of the rest of us for a change. Any charge of Racism should immediately be answered with: “Aren’t you on the board of La Raza” Which “La Raza” is it that you support in that organization? Is that the White “La Raza” or the Latino “La Raza”. Because none of us belong to a group called “The Race” except YOU miss Sotomeyer.
the pubies are the 2nd democrat party.
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