Obama’s Supreme Court Pick: Sonia Sotomayor

President Obama’s first nominee for the Supreme Court (to replace retiring justice David Souter) is Sonia Sotomayor who if confirmed will become the first Hispanic and only the third woman in the history of the Supreme Court.

Obama “introducing” Sotomayor:

The 54 year old Sotomayor appears to be a difficult choice for the Republicans to attack because of the fact that she would become the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and because she’s already been confirmed by the Senate twice before (in 1992 and again in 1997.)

She considered to be a “political centrist” by the American Bar Association and she was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush for a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. These factoids should shoot down any attempt by the GOP to paint her as an “activist judge.” (And yes I think that term is so ridiculous that I have to put it in quotes every time I write it.)

Of course the fact that she is clearly qualified and that she can’t be accurately pigeonholed as an “activist judge” won’t stop the Republican attack machine from doing what they do which is to repeat their “talking points” (which are nothing but lies and distortions in sound bite form) endlessly.

Here’s what Stephen L. Carter (Sotomayor’s former classmate at Yale) has to say about Sotomayor: CLICK HERE for the story at The Daily Beast.

Personally, I’m somewhat disappointed that he didn’t pick an “activist judge” (which is, of course, nothing but code for liberal.) Bush picked far right judges like John Roberts and Samuel Alito, so why can’t Obama pick a liberal judge? Why is it that only Democratic Presidents seem to go out of their way to pick a “centrist,” especially when it’s clear the Republican lie factory will go after whoever is chosen regardless of the facts?