Lindsey Graham to Sotomayor: "You've said some things that just bug the hell out of me"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Questioning Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the second time, Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), told the Supreme Court nominee that, in the past, she has "said some things that just bug the hell out of me."

But the South Carolina Republican left the impression that he would end up supporting Sotomayor's nomination, declaring, at one point, that she had proven that she could separate her history as an activist and a judge.

"Here's what I will say about you," Graham said. "I don't know how you're going to come out on . Because I think fundamentally, Judge, you're able, after all these years of being a judge, to embrace a right that you may not want for yourself, to allow others to do things that are not comfortable to you but for the group, they're necessary. That is my hope for you. That's what makes you to me more acceptable as a judge and not an activist because an activist would be a judge who would be chomping at the bit to use this wonderful opportunity to change America through the Supreme Court by taking their view of life and imposing it on the rest of us. I think and believe, based on what I know about you so far, that you're broad-minded enough to understand that America is bigger than the Bronx, it is bigger than South Carolina."

The questioning from Graham contained the type of lecturer's tone that Sotomayor's defenders found so objectionable when the two squared off on Tuesday. As then, the Senator peppered Obama's choice for the court with a series of questions focusing on her past work for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, her definition of identity politics, and her infamous "wise Latina" remark. On the latter point, Graham ended his portion of the question and answer session with a dramatic flare.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/16/sotomayor-hearings-video_n_235154.html

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. Stupid motherfucker. My whole family is watching this and we're disgusted.

Ride that racism train, Republicans.

[SIMPLYB1980]

2. I guess the republicans realize that the vast majority of

Americans realize that they are the party for racists. So instead of running from that perception they have embraced it wholeheartedly. On one hand it baffles the mind and on the other I'm not that surprised.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. My thoughts:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6080975

[niyad]

4. me to graham, "every time you speak, you make me sick to my stomach, you vile,

insufferable, hate-filled little prick. now
STFU and go home, get your hood on (we know you wear it in secret) and retire to the obscurity you so richly merit)

[Arkana]

5. "First of all, Ms. Sotomayor, did you know you're Hispanic?"

"Can you try, like, maybe, not being Hispanic?"

Just wear your white sheet to work, Mr. Graham. It would remove the ambiguity. Maybe it would get Senator Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III to wear his too.

[izquierdista]

6. Just close your eyes, Lindsey

and keep saying "there's no place like home, there's no place like home". Maybe you can wake up in black-and-white land, where the black is always way over there.

[Rob H.]

7. "...with a dramatic flare."

<word nerd>

Unless he lit a road flare or fired a flare gun into the air, he ended it with "a dramatic flair" or better still, "a dramatic flourish."

</word nerd>

[City Lights]

8. Look who's talking, Lindsey.

I first became aware of your existence when you were one of those nasty, idiotic, childish, hypocritical House Managers during Clinton's impeachment. I've despised you ever since.

[blondeatlast]

9. The racism/sexism is SO transparent, but is filtered to the masses through the likes

of Faux and Rush, so they really have no idea what is going on.

And so, they get away with it at least for a while. I pray that Lindsey's white hooded chickens come home to roost very soon.

[sweetpotato]

10. And HE is our sane senator

He's better than DeMint, but that ain't saying much.

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. I told a friend the other day

that it was a sad state of affairs when Lindsey Graham was the sanest representative of our state.
We do have James Clyburn and John Spratt in the House, but all you see about SC are the 3 stooges: Sanford, Graham and DeMint.

[sweetpotato]

14. they all make me ill.

I can't even listen to them speak without having a visceral reaction.

[mitchum]

11. Scarlett is pitching a hissy fit

[guitar man]

13. Good

If what she says bugs the hell out of Lindsey Graham, she sounds like my kind of gal! :P

[librechik]

15. He also said her experience was not important because of the "very disturbing" things

she said off the job. Like it's vaguely possible that a Latina woman could be as good as or even superior to a white man as a judge IN DISCRIMINATION CASES. Oh My GOD Call Homeland Security--Uppity Female Alert!