They simply see Sotomayor is a better wedge issue come election time if she's seated. The repugnant Senators may be backing off now, but Rush and his fellow travelers will continue laying the ground work for next year.

Of course, none of them will ever, as they are devoid of empathy, realize the full impact of disparaging Sotomayor for baseless reasons, especially her correct ruling on Ricci. I swear, I think sometimes it's the Republican party's goal to make minorities hate them as much as they hate minorities.

The real question is what Liz Cheney thinks about this. It has been hours since a breathless nation has had the benefit of her advice.

Correct me if I am wrong- and I frequently am- but wasn't she one of three judges, and it was a two to one decision?

And didn't they AGREE with the lower court?

Seems saner (HA!) Republican'ts
saw no there, there. . .

i suspect the repigs are holding back till her confirmation hearings.

After what the reich wing has done to her, they have possibly created such a sour taste in her mouth, that after she is seated, she will be even MORE likely to rule in ways that the knuckle-draggers find objectionable. They keep attacking and smearing and metaphorically smashing her in the mouth; impugning her integrity; making false accusations; and maligning her ability to make sound judgments. I for one, hope she remembers how the riech wing has treated her, the tyranny of their fear and smear tactics, and the baselessness of their positions against all others who do not think exactly like them.

Souter was one of the four dissenters supporting her, so if she had already replaced him it would have ended up exactly the same. It's all a wash. Maybe that's one reason no one is throwing a fit.

I'm wondering whether the RepuGlican grandees haven't taken to the Ricci decision as a cudgel against Sotomayor because they think it's too abstract an argument to make to the inflammable part of their base. And as they have also learned, those among the right wing base with whom the reverse racism card plays well obviously don't give a lot of money in fund raising drives.

Also, as Sotomayor's confirmation looks a lot like a foregone conclusion and getting more Brownie points from the rabid part of the RepuGlican base has to be balanced against alienating the Hispanic part of the electorate even further, these grandees are in sort of a bind.

I'd say look for token opposition from RepuGlican senators all the way in, but that's essentially going to be it. They've lost this battle, if it ever was one.

f you haven't done so already, check out Mr. Greenwald's take; which includes:

(2) The irony of using Ricci against Sotomayor has always been that the reason this case resonates for so many people is due to empathy for the white firefighters. That irony is underscored by today's ruling, as Justice Kennedy devotes multiple paragraphs at the beginning of his opinion to highlighting all of the facts (as opposed to legal arguments) which make people sympathetic to Ricci. Conversely, Justice Ginsburg, writing for the dissenters, noted upfront that the white firefighters "understandably attract this Court's sympathy," but it must be the law -- i.e., long-standing legal precedent and the purpose of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act -- which determines the outcome.

From the start, those protesting Sotomayor's decision in Ricci did so by appealing not to law, but to emotion, non-legal precepts of "fairness" and empathy -- at the very same time that those very same people mocked the notion that those considerations should play any role in judicial decision-making.

"The irony of using Ricci against Sotomayor has always been that the reason this case resonates for so many people is due to empathy for the white firefighters."

Bzzt! Wrong, thanks for playing. The point of the whole exercise is that all nine justices, to one degree or another, agreed that Sotomayor and the Second Circuit applied the wrong standard of law to the case. Unlike the neanderthals of the left-o-sphere, I have empathy for both the white and Hispanic firefighters unduly denied promotions, and the black firefighters who did not win them, and have now been subjected to intense paternalism. That's why "empathy" is useless on the Supreme Court and the true measure of an Associate Justice is capability, and on that score, at least in Ricci, Sotomayor failed miserably.

FYI, name-calling is a two-way street. If you insist on referring to people who happen to disagree with you "knuckle-draggers" or "RepuGlicans," I see no reason you shouldn't be pointed out as "progassives" or "Democraps" or perhaps just "unenligtened morons." You keep the dialogue civil, so will I.

"You keep the dialogue civil, so will I."

Would you then be so kind to tell your bretheren from the GOP that the proper expression is 'Democratic Party not 'Democrat Party'.

We'll be much obliged and more than happy then to keep the dialogue civil.

Ricci, like the GOHP (Grand Old Hypocritical Party), mean very little to the Hispanic Community which has grown weary of Hispanic bashing and hate mongering. Attacking Sotomayor simply because she desires to achieve the American dream is not acceptable. The Hispanics will voice their opinions during the next elections, when Republicans are thrown out of office by the dozen.