None of the endorsements was particularly surprising; instead, the significance came through Martinez's and Lugar's standing. Lugar is the Senate's senior Republican, first elected in 1976, and he has long been a leader of the Foreign Relations Committee, while Martinez is the only Hispanic Republican in the Senate.
Snowe said Sotomayor "appears neither rigid nor dogmatic in her approach to the essential task of constitutional interpretation."
As also pointed out the huge deal that was expected with Frank Ricci that some compared as a possible "Anita Hill" never happened. I watched Anita Hill be questioned, that didn't happen because no one treated Ricci the way she was treated...
Though I do have to say I think Patrick McIlheran really gets it:
From this, two possible outcomes emerge. One, Sotomayor is confirmed, and it turns out her conversion is real. Wise Latina? Nah, she's an umpire in the Roberts mold. Result: Conservatives win.
Two, she's faking. She's confirmed and becomes a reliable liberal vote to mutate the Constitution into what she's sure the writers would have made it had they been as smart as modern liberals. Result: No change from the man she replaces, David Souter, and Obama loses more credibility with independent voters.
Either way, what's become clear is that the week that was supposed to be the humiliating rout of old white guys in the Senate has turned into the surrender of judicial liberalism. That has become the philosophy no potential justice can admit to, even when her president owns the Senate. Whoever in the administration coached Sotomayor knows this: A conservative Supreme Court is not at odds with America. It is its reflection.
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