Broad Jump

Supreme Court Justice to be Sonia Sotomayor sought to smooth ruffled feathers for a past comment in her visit to Capitol Hill.

Dummycrats tried to put in context her, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life”, comment.

“What she said was of course one’s life experience shapes who you are,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who Sotomayor cleared to give her first public response on the controversy. “But ultimately and completely … as a judge you follow the law.”

And

Dick Durbin Senate Majority Whip...“basically it means that’s part of my life experience that I bring to my judgment. Maybe it means with this background I’m a better listener, I listen for better things. But ultimately, it’s not going to decide any case for me.”

Not according to The New York Times...

Judge Sotomayor has given several speeches about the importance of diversity. But her 2001 remarks at Berkeley...went further, asserting that judges’ identities will affect legal outcomes.

“Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences,” she said, for jurists who are women and nonwhite, “our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.”

Her remarks came in the context of reflecting her own life experiences as a Hispanic female judge and on how the increasing diversity on the federal bench “will have an effect on the development of the law and on judging.”

That sounds like it is going to decide cases for her, it's exactly why Obama selected her and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Leahy called criticism of Sotomayor, "among the most vicious attacks that have been received by anybody".

Interesting coming from a man who was critical of Judge Robert Bork for doing insufficient charity work while a professor at Yale, and for fees he earned as an outside consultant.

Fees that were used to pay the medical bills of his first wife, who died during that consulting period.

Lastly Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showed once again Congress' aversion to reading anything, such as bills, when he sidestepped questions about her past decisions, telling reporters that he's never read any of the hundreds she's written during her 17 years as a federal judge. And, he added, "if I'm fortunate before we end this, I won't have to read one of them."

Then how do you know, "We have the whole package here."?