I’m sure there are many good reasons to oppose President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.  What concerns me is the decision-making process that produced this nominee.  We seem to be more interested in a candidate’s personal story or appeal to important minority groups than his or her ability to, you know, actually do the job.  It’s good to have more minorities holding positions of power in our country.  But I’m not sure that President Obama looked far enough before picking this nominee.  In general it’s a good idea to spend significantly more time on this choice than it takes to order a latte from Starbucks.  Her record as a judge should be the most important factor in determining whether she would be a good choice as a Supreme Court justice, not whether she has “empathy” or whether she appeals to the right constituency groups.  That doesn’t appear to be the case here.  But at least she paid her taxes (We think).

Should the Republicans vote against this nominee?  Why not?  They have nothing to lose by doing so.   It’s clear that this nominee shares the President’s judicial philosophy, and that’s enough reason for me.  There have also been questions both from the left and the right about her judicial record that suggest an unsuitability for the high court. However, the Republicans do have to be careful in their opposition, because even legitimate criticisms of her could be considered as an attack on her as a minority.  We are already seeing this in the national media, and there’s nothing we can do to change the narrative of the MSM.  That’s just the way it is for the party out of power these days, folks.