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Listen to Peter Roskam’s comments this morning on 890 AM’s “Don Wade and Roma Show” regarding President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court.
Judge Sotomayor has had a distinguished legal career:
- J.D. from Yale Law School
- Editor of the Yale Law Journal
- 5 years as an Assistant District Attorney in New York
- 8 years of private practice in commercial litigation at Pavia & Harcourt
- Appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush to U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York in 1991
- Appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton toCircuit Court of Appeals in 1997
- 17 years experience as a federal judge (John Roberts had only 2 years)
And Peter Roskam wants to reject her based on a couple of remarks taken out of context, without having any hearings and without having examined her judicial record. He thinks she has “an agenda”.
Come on, Peter. That’s bullshit. Its you who has an agenda. If this all about the law, why didn’t you speak out when President Bush nominated his dismally unqualified counsel Harriet Miers.
No, you are just trying to fan the flames among your extremist base by insinuating that she is a racist and will let her racists beliefs guide her decison-making. That claim is absurd, as Tom Goldstein has pointed out at ScotusBlog. This is just more obstruction on your part. Trying to create noise to prevent the President from addressing the nation’s real problems. If you think there are real issues with this nominee based on her judicial record, you should outline them. Otherwise your comments are just irresponsible and helping to make an ugly Republican spectacle even uglier.
In fairness, we need to remind readers that Peter Roskam himself has had a distinguished legal career:
Here’s President Obama speaking about Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s qualifications:
Weekly Address: President Obama on Judge Sotomayor’s Experience from White House on Vimeo.
UPDATE: I note that Adam Doster at Progress Illinois, has published a response to Roskam’s remarks that is, as always, more thorough and more polite than my own. I encourage you to read it.
