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Source: Amicus Brief Proves Sotomayor is Pro-Choice
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2009 Comment (38)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.
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GOP Should Tell Bush, Limbaugh, and Gingrich to Zip It
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2009 Comment (16)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.
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Obama's Roadless Forest Timeout a Good Start on Protecting the Environment
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2009 Comment (4)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:
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Republicans Have Much to Lose, Nothing to Win in Sotomayor Fight
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2009 Comment (33)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.
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Republicans' Several Reasons to Support Sonia Sotomayor
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2009 Comment (9)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.
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Is Sotomayor Obama's Souter on Abortion Rights?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 27, 2009 Comment (35)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?
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Sonia Sotomayor's Mixed Record on Abortion Rights
Tweet Share on Facebook May 27, 2009 Comment (13)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.
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Republican Attacks on Sotomayor Will Alienate Hispanic Voters
Tweet Share on Facebook May 26, 2009 Comment (20)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Blog posts such as this one from a Cato Institute fellow are so unfair, but simultaneously so helpful to the Democratic Party. It's confounding why the people making them would be so short-sighted:
In picking Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has confirmed that identity politics matter to him more than merit.
Judge Sotomayor is not one of the leading lights of the federal judiciary and would not even have been on the shortlist if she were not Hispanic.
The first thing conservative or, this is from the Cato Institute's website, libertarian bloggers do when they question Judge Sonia Sotomayor's qualifications, is send every swing Hispanic voter solidly into the Democratic camp. It's even worse when they question her intelligence (which this blogger does by excluding Judge Sotomayor from the category of judicial leading lights.)
One of the few good things George W. Bush did for his party was to woo Hispanic voters. He simultaneously alienated moderates, fiscal conservatives and a host of other key constituencies. Now his surrogates are casting aside what little Hispanic support remains for the GOP. So be it. It's the Republicans' to ruin and they're doing a great job of that.
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Hey Republicans, Limbaugh and Cheney Will Only Lead to Prolonged Minority Status
Tweet Share on Facebook May 26, 2009 Comment (19)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Gen. Colin Powell, though arguably one of the most attractive political figures in the country, was drummed out of the Bush White House by an extraordinarily unpopular homunculus, who is now teaming with another homunculus to try to drive Powell out of the party. It won't work Dick Cheney! Teaming up with Rush Limbaugh makes the two men the most reviled political team in the U.S.
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Wake Up Madison Avenue, Older Folks Have More Cash
Tweet Share on Facebook May 22, 2009 Comment (8)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
The Wall Street Journal posted a fascinating article offering insight on the rather limited thinking of Madison Avenue executives. It profiles a fashion sales website launched by a former Fox TV executive seeking to target 18-to-34-year-old consumers. The man is asked why he's targeting this demographic and he says, essentially, because he always has.
So does Madison Avenue. Younger is better in ad executives' eyes and I have never understood why. The over-35 crowd is more affluent and more intelligent.
