Rich: Sotomayor hearings the death rattle of Old White Men rule

[Doctor_J]

Yet the Sotomayor show was still rich in historical significance. Someday we may regard it as we do those final, frozen tableaus of Pompeii. It offered a vivid snapshot of what Washington looked like when clueless ancien-régime conservatives were feebly clinging to their last levers of power, blissfully oblivious to the new America that was crashing down on their heads and reducing their antics to a sideshow as ridiculous as it was obsolescent.

The hearings were pure “Alice in Wonderland.” Reality was turned upside down. Southern senators who relate every question to race, ethnicity and gender just assumed that their unreconstructed obsessions are America’s and that the country would find them riveting. Instead the country yawned. The Sotomayor questioners also assumed a Hispanic woman, simply for being a Hispanic woman, could be portrayed as The Other and patronized like a greenhorn unfamiliar with How We Do Things Around Here. The senators seemed to have no idea they were describing themselves when they tried to caricature Sotomayor as an overemotional, biased ideologue.

At least they didn’t refer to “Maria Sotomayor” as had Mike Huckabee, whose sole knowledge of Latinos apparently derives from “West Side Story.” But when Tom Coburn of Oklahoma merrily joked to Sotomayor that “You’ll have lots of ’splainin’ to do,” it clearly didn’t occur to him that such mindless condescension helps explain why the fastest-growing demographic group in the nation is bolting his party.

Full opinion

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/opinion/19rich.html?_r=1

[Buzz Clik]

1. Well, maybe. We can certainly hope, but...

... we went through quite a string of white men placed on the court before she arrived.

[Wednesdays]

2. K&R

:kick:

[Duke Newcombe]

3. For a moment...I ALMOST felt sorry...

for Sessions and Cornyn.

How very stark and lonely an existence when one thinks that in order to benefit and profit from life, someone has to be on the bottom...anyone...as long as it's not them. Even more sad when they have to see the decline of their broken world view happen right before their eyes, and they cannot do a damned thing about it.

[N.Y. to Paris]

5. Spot on Duke.....

Excellent......let the truth be told!

[Doctor_J]

10. If it were accidental, or borne from ignorance, maybe

But the attacks were malicious, racist, planned, and pandering to the lowest filth of America. It is an embarrassment that these people are Senators

[sharesunited]

4. Can we include self-hating black men? Looking at you Uncle Clarence!

[Paladin]

6. OUTSTANDING Column By Frank Rich. Don't Miss It.

Bonus aspect: Note the subtle but very real jabs he aims at the sexual orientation of Lindsey Graham......

[bemildred]

7. I have enjoyed watching the conservative punditry whine because she gave them nothing. nt

[Faygo Kid]

8. This was brilliant (of course, it's Frank Rich). K&R.

His column is a highlight of every week.

[Doctor_J]

9. Yes, I never go to bed Saturday night any more before reading Frank

I wonder how long until NYT fires him for being too liberal

[DCKit]

11. The NYT can't make it on ad revenue alone.

AFAIK, he's one of three or four (and the funnies) that keeps people paying for that sad rag.

Back in the olden days, I actually looked forward to lazy Sundays in bed with the Times. Lately, it'd be more like waking up with an STD, a box of Saltines between the soggy sheets and a new "friend" who resembles Rush in a wig - all that before enough time had elapsed for the severe hangover, totaled car and missing credit cards to register.

The Enquirer has more cachet these days than the NYT and WaPo combined. But I'm not complaining.