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Originally Posted by TheLastBoyScout
Appointing a guy named Cardozo to the Supreme Court in the 1920's is certainly more groundbreaking than naming a woman named Sotamayor in 2009.
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I think it would be insofar as him being Jewish and the level of existing bias and bigotry at the time.
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I really doubt seizing the prize for firsts is what the Obama administration is going for. They should be happy to claim the first "hispanic female" justice and leave it at that. Politically, the perception is a win for them either way.
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I think it's part of his calculus. The guy is extremely clever in politicking. It puts him in the good place for Hispanic voters that already are POed at the GOP for immigration positions and therefore have increasingly backed Obama and the Dems because of that, and puts the GOP on the spot as possibly looking bad once again to Hispanics if they blackball her.
Despite the fact that Bush picked Gonzales for AG and appointed or approved other Latino judges (including Juan Raul Sanchez for my local US District Court), the Dems filibustered Honduran-born Judge Miguel Estrada for the Circuit Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit despite a 'well-qualified' American Bar Association rating, etc, you can bet the farm that the GOP will be tarred as bigots as well as a party in the hands of extreme right wingers if they vote 'No' and especially if they try to filibuster her.
And she's also a woman, something that many women have long been complaining are not represented fairly on the SCOTUS, which is actually true given only 2 have been there (O'Connor and Ginsburg) and only 1 currently sits there (Ginsburg) and even those two Justices have been complaining about that fact.
Also, Bush 41 put Sotomayor on the bench in the first place. This also makes it hard for the GOP to claim she is now unqualified.
So, if the GOP roughs her up, votes 'No' and/or filibusters, Obama has set them up for all sorts of attacks geared towards making them pay big penalties with Latino and women voters, two huge groups of swing voters. And Obama set himself up to look good with both by picking her and so will the Dems in Congress that support her.