Entries for May 2009

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

I have been told by a well-known leader of a major progressive women's rights group that Judge Sonia Sotomayor is pro-choice. This leader has spoken with many of the judge's associates and clerks over the years. While there is no one this person spoke with who confirmed he or she had had a conversation with Judge Sotomayor in which she self-identified as pro-choice, everyone my source spoke with said it was evident in her personality and attitude.

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

If Limbaugh, Gingrich et al., keep going, the GOP will end up a party of two. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair John Cornyn lashed out at them for calling Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, "racist:"

"I think it's terrible," Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told NPR's "All Things Considered" Thursday. "This is not the kind of tone any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent."

The comment is particularly important coming from Sen. Cornyn, who used to sit on the Texas Supreme Court.

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

The Obama administration's temporary timeout on new development of road-less areas within national forests is a very good beginning. But it's a fraction of what the Administration needs to do to live up to the President's promise to protect the environment. The timeout was issued yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who will have to personally approve any new project:

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

Noted Republican strategist Ed Rollins agrees with me.

The gist of his argument is a battle with the Democrats over the Sotomayor nomination is a battle where the chances of victory are slim and none and the costs of war are great.

Coincidentally, the latest print edition of National Journal sports the headline, "The Shrinking GOP," and the cover art is a shot of a sailboat in beautiful blue water surrounded by a dry and cracking lake bed.

The subhead says, "Republicans are doing fine in the South. It's everywhere else that's the problem." Duh! But you can't win national elections by winning the South—-at least not recently.

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

Some more reasons why Republicans should support Sotomayor:

In addition to my assertions of yesterday that Sonia Sotomayor leans conservative on abortion rights cases, the Web is filling up with information that she's conservative on other critical areas of constitutional and business law as well. Is she a conservative? Of course not. But she's shaping up to be a far cry from the type of nominee to the Supreme Court one would have expected from President Obama.

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

David Souter was appointed to the Supreme Court by George H.W. Bush and endorsed by legions of conservatives who thought he was one of them:

Labeled a "home run" for conservatives when he was nominated for a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990, Justice David Souter has turned out to be anything but. In fact, conservatives now use Souter as an example of the kind of justice they want President George W. Bush to avoid as he deliberates on a replacement for outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.Only one prominent conservative organization, the Conservative Caucus, opposed Souter's nomination 15 years ago. Other conservative groups believed Souter would help overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling legalizing abortion.

Boy were they wrong! Justice Souter became a permanent fixture in the court's most recent four-person progressive minority wing.

Is the same mistake being made in reverse on Judge Sonia Sotomayor?

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

While Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is widely hailed by the right as an activist, liberal judge, there are hints in her record that she may be anything but when it comes to abortion rights.