Saturday Forum

A Nebraska Reader Reports Hispanic Bloggers Savaging Sotomayor; etc.

From: Dale Gribble (e-mail him)

Re: Steve Sailer’s Column: The Sotomayor Scandal: What Does It Mean For America?

Maybe Obama's selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor was a brilliant bid for him to buy time and put an illegal immigration amnesty on the backburner.

However, reviewing some Latino/Latina blog posts from cyberspace’s diverse corners, I see cracks in Obama's Hispandering strategy.

Many don't view Sotomayor as one of their own. For example, this one: Puertorriqueñas' Stories of Life in Chicago

"Mexicans, however, inhabit a different ideological space and are often perceived as both an economic and cultural threat…. the tension between Puerto Ricans and Mexicans revolve around issues of citizenship: Mexicans hate Puerto Ricans…because they are born American citizens; and Puerto Ricans resent Mexicans because they allegedly compete for jobs and undercut legal workers' wages."

Another website poster described his view of the ethnic rift between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans:

"Sotomayor is Puerto Rican, not Mexican. Not all Hispanic groups love or even like each other. From my years in Florida I know that Cubans dislike Puerto Ricans and loath Mexicans.

“Most Cuban Americans I known think Mexicans are nothing but trash, peons and PR's, well you get the picture. Even Italians and Sicilians dislike each other. I never really met any other Hispanics (Mexicans, Central and South Americans, etc) until I moved to south Florida. There I quickly learned not all Hispanics like one another."

El Chez, a Mexican from Texas, was unimpressed with Sotomayor because she’s not “a true Chicano”

"(Not) until a true Chicano is appointed to the Supreme Court the Mexican-Americans of this country will truly be represented. Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans are as different as night and day. Obama might as well have elected another black to the Supreme Court. "

And Taco from El Paso had this charming advice for Sotomayor's Supreme Court colleagues:

"My advice to all the other justices: watch your hubcaps."

With all the splintered ethnic loyalties that the Supreme Court apparently will need to represent, we will soon need to expand its size to about 30 judges.

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A New York Reader Says Reid Gave Sotomayor “Kiss Of Death”—He Likes Her!

From: Quentin Simpson (e-mail him)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Caroline Kennedy during the heady days when she seemed a shoo-in for a New York Senate appointment: “I think Caroline Kennedy would be perfect." [Reid Urged Paterson to Pick Kennedy, by Chris Cillizza, Washington Post, December 16, 2008]

About Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Reid said: “We have the whole package here. We could not have anyone more qualified.” [Sotomayor Makes Rounds at the Capitol, by David Herszenhorn, New York Times, June 2, 2009]

Bad news for Sotomayor! Being praised by Reid, the most ill informed man in the Senate, is truly the kiss of death.

Simpson’s previous letters about Bruce Springsteen, Nancy Pelosi and Kennedy are here, here and here.

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A California Reader Yearns To Return To Pennsylvania

From: Paul Ciotti (e-mail him)

Re: Joe Guzzardi’s column: So Long California, Thanks For The Memories!

I just read Guzzardi’s insightful piece about living in Pittsburgh after he moved from California.

Guzzardi is so right about western Pennsylvania having such a strong sense of community.

Although I've lived in Los Angeles now for three decades, I grew up in the country 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, near Greensburg.

Now matter how long I’ve been gone, every time I return to Pittsburgh the place just feels like home: the people, their dialect and their conversations (their politics) seems so right. Here in Los Angeles I've been on a different page ever since I arrived.

I wish more columnists would do as Guzzardi did and write about the terrible economic impact on Los Angeles of having so many poorly educated illegal aliens in the city.

The Los Angeles Times continually frets about crime, lack of water, congested streets, failing schools but it never admits that those problems are all connected to the surge of immigrants, each one of whom costs the state of California thousands of dollars beginning the minute he crosses the border.

And by the time an illegal immigrant family of four headed by a father without a high school diploma gets all the education and other social services it is “entitled” to the taxpayer tab will approach one million dollars over a lifetime.

As much as I would like to return to Pennsylvania, I’d have to give up my good journalism job with little prospect of finding a similar one in Pittsburgh. So in the end, to my regret, we have chosen to stay in Los Angeles.

Read Ciotti’s blog comparing life in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania with Los Angeles here.

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A California Reader Says Sotomayor “A Mediocrity”, Will Have No Impact

From: J. Silverman (e-mail him)

Re: Today’s Letter: A New Jersey Reader Says The GOP Must Challenge Sonia Sotomayor’s Nomination If It Expects To Energize Its Dwindling Base

It’s great that Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Of course she's a liberal. Who did you expect Obama to nominate, a bright jurist with a history of scintillating, intellectually brilliant decisions? C'mon.

But don't you see that it's better he chose Sotomayor than, say, Stanford University Professor Pamela Karlan?

Sotomayor is a mediocrity who will write mediocre, predictably liberal opinions. She has zero charisma and has not one major decision to her name.

Furthermore, Sotomayor will replace David Souter—good riddance—so her appointment if confirmed results in a political wash. At worst, she will do no more harm than Souter did and probably less because of her inferior intellect.

Imagine on the other hand what someone like Karlan, a brilliant hardcore lesbian, would do. America’s entire left wing would have been galvanized. I sense quiet disappointment in their ranks that Karlan didn’t get the nod.

I despise both parties, so I don't really care about the Republicans. But if opposing Sotomayor is the way to galvanize their base, as letter writer J. Richard Burt encourages, Republicans are in a real pickle.

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