Posted by
Chris Field on Friday, May 29, 2009 9:19:00 AM
The
Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel
brilliantly discusses Obama's two big ground rules about debating Sotomayor and why they must be broken:
President Barack Obama has laid down his ground rules for the debate over Supreme
Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The big question now is whether
Republicans agree to play by rules that neither Mr. Obama nor his party
have themselves followed.
Ground Rule No. 1, as decreed by the president, is that this is to be a
discussion primarily about Judge Sotomayor's biography, not her
qualifications. The media gurus complied, with inspiring stories of how
she was born to Puerto Rican immigrants, how she was raised by a single
mom in a Bronx housing project, how she went on to Princeton and then
Yale. In the years that followed she presumably issued a judicial
opinion here or there, but whatever. ...
Which brings us to Ground Rule No. 2, which is that Republicans are
not allowed to criticize Judge Sotomayor, for the reason that she is
the first Hispanic nominee to the High Court. The Beltway media also
dutifully latched on to this White House talking point, reporting
threats from leading Democrats, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer,
who intoned that Republicans "oppose her at their peril."
This would be the same Mr. Schumer who had this to say about Miguel Estrada . . .
Read it all.