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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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Are Democrats Behind Closing Republican-Owned Chrysler Dealerships?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2009 Comment (30)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
It should be clear to everyone by now that neither the Chrysler Corporation nor General Motors are going quietly into bankruptcy. The actions of the Obama Administration represent what, in my lifetime, is certainly an unprecedented level of government interference in private business.
The intersecting of government and business is almost always a highly controversial matter. And it is no different here. The White House has taken a number of well-deserved blows for, in effect, firing the CEO of Chrysler and for insisting on a number of additional changes to the corporate structure as a condition of support for the company's survival. It is one thing when private investors insist on changes as a condition of support; it is altogether another when the government makes the same demands.
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How Far Will Mormons Go to Fight Gay Marriage?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2009 Comment (269)By John Aloysius Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
If a gay marriage question is put on the California ballot in 2010, it will put the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a seriously interesting crossroads.
It has been three or four decades since the Mormon Church chose a low profile in American politics, after its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, and theological hostility to black Americans, spurred an anti-Mormon backlash. The Mormons are among the most persecuted of American sects, and highly sensitive to criticism.
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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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No More "Borking" of Supreme Court Nominees
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2009 Comment (10)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
I wrote about the Sotomayor nomination in today's U.S.News Weekly edition and thought I'd add to it by sharing with you the two best things I've read this week on the Supreme Court nomination. Here's Peggy Noonan's advice to the GOP in the Wall Street Journal:
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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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The Myth of Sotomayor's 60 Percent Supreme Court Reversal Rate
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2009 Comment (105)By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
One of the sillier attacks on Sonia Sotomayor is that some large proportion of her decisions has been overturned by the Supreme Court. She has, some conservatives breathlessly report, been overturned by the court 60 percent of the time. That seems pretty high, right?
Not so much.
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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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Obama Rakes in Money While California Burns. Where's the Media Outrage?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2009 Comment (17)By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Let's take a look at the president's schedule over the last two days:
President Obama flew to Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas and gave "one of the shortest speeches of his political career," according to the New York Times's coverage, to mark the 100 days since the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—otherwise known as the $787 billion stimulus package. In his official remarks, which were only four paragraphs long, he actually said this:
You know, it's always a pleasure to get out of Washington a little bit. Washington is okay, but it's nice taking some time to talk to Americans of every walk of life outside of the nation's capital.
For the rest of his trip, there was no time for "talking to Americans of every walk of life" because there were no other public events. The president left the military base and attended a multimillion-dollar fundraiser Tuesday night for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at Caesar's Palace—where he shared with the crowd his delight in getting an "upgrade" to the luxurious Presidential Suite.
