Clinton and Sotomayor Endure Man-Made Perils: Margaret Carlson

[babylonsister]

Clinton and Sotomayor Endure Man-Made Perils: Margaret Carlson

Commentary by Margaret Carlson


July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton and Sonia Sotomayor have risen to the top of their professions being the best students in the class, homework always done, notebooks neat and conduct impeccable. They share the perils of their ascension: The world remains white and male and ready to put a high female achiever back in her place if given half a chance.

No one spoke to Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Samuel Alito the way Senate Judiciary Committee members are speaking to Sotomayor. Two exchanges stand out. Senator Lindsey Graham, a smart lawyer and all-around good guy, had to show he was with the program to nick Sotomayor before confirming her.

He asked her about her temperament as described by a number of anonymous people quoted in a Zagat-like review of judges. “She’s a terror on the bench,” she’s “a bully” and “abuses lawyers.” Said Graham, “You stand out like a sore thumb.”

These are characteristics generally admired in men and needed on the bench to deal with lawyers who arrive unprepared yet full of bravado. She told Graham that she asks “hard questions” of both sides, in her usual calm and steady manner. She could hardly be a courtroom terrorist unless she’s been drugged for the last three days of hearings or subject to multiple-personality disorder.

After he was done, Graham said, “I like you, by the way, for whatever that matters. Since I may vote for you that ought to matter to you.”

‘You Like Me!’

Sotomayor demurred but I could hardly be the only person hoping that Sally Field’s cry at the Oscars, “You like me, you really like me!” didn’t jump into her head. Men just don’t talk to other men they respect that way.

Equally jarring, Senator Tom Coburn told her the next day, “You’ll have lots of ‘splainin’ to do” after Sotomayor tried to respond to his pounding on whether there was a right to “personal self-defense.”

Did any senator make “Godfather” jokes to Alito? Coburn’s racial stereotyping, drawing from a famous line in “I Love Lucy,” was wrong. He either thinks Sotomayor is Cuban, or Ricky Ricardo was Puerto Rican.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aKoXlGALLiMw

[Captain Hilts]

1. They're ambitious! They're arrogant!!!!