Things just keep getting worse for Sotomayor:
Sotomayor also claimed: “For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir — rice, beans and pork — that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events.”
This has prompted some Republicans to muse privately about whether Sotomayor is suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine such as patitas de cerdo con garbanzo — pigs’ tongue and ears — would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench.
TPM points out that she’s just claiming she likes such simple food.
She says she’s Puerto Rican, but has anyone seen a birth certificate?
Persia
That first link is a parody, right? Right?
gex
Man, she stopped to use English mid-sentence but forgot to translate this: mucho platos.
You know the wingnuts don’t have the capacity for sussing this one out!
Jager
Remind the two “Eye-talians” on the court there was a time in this country when pasta was considered exotic, foreign food and the Boston Brahmins wouldn’t come within 100 yards of an “Wop”…these people make me sick.
Adrienne
Because obviously one can’t enjoy both simple foods and more “refined” flavors. Obviously no self respecting person would enjoy both canned tuna AND chilean sea bass. Noon e in their right mind could tolerate iceburg AND arugula. And certainly noone could enjoy ground beef AND filet mignon. No es possible.
MattF
I’m starting to think that there’s something special going on here. The wingers have been (mostly) ‘holding it in’ about Obama for a year or more, but now with Sotomayor’s nomination, their poor little racism sphincters have finally just given up. It’s too much.
DougJ
Actually, canned tuna is kind of gross. Chilean sea bass is overrated too, btw.
That Puerto Rican roasted pork is delicious, though.
The Grand Panjandrum
No birth certificate. No flag pin. What I’ve been dying to know is does she put her hand over her heart during the pledge or raise a clenched fist and shout out “Viva la Raza!”
demkat620
@The Grand Panjandrum: No, no, no, Viva Zapata!
These clowns are beyond stoopid.
RSA
Just wait until the first swine flu-related case comes up before the Supreme Court.
MTiffany
I’m waiting for the Wingnuts to start arguing that Sotomayor’s nomination is part of a plot to keep Congressional Republicans from making English the national language.
KRK
@Adrienne:
Actually, the “just” in that sentence is emphasizing the use of the verb “claiming” rather than the simplicity of the food described. That is, the writer in the quoted sentence wants to hedge his bets on whether Sotomayor’s telling the truth about what food she likes; he’s only willing to repeat that she says she likes it.
Zifnab
And for that reason, these conservative critics were adamant against any judge nominated with “pro-life” views, as such a strongly held personal value would clearly impact the judge’s view of previously held legal precedent.
“No Pro-Life Judges” then became the rallying cry of the conservative base, “Down with the Religious Judiciary!” became an oft-heard chant, and with a loud hurrah Ward Churchill was catapulted into the vacant SCOTUS seat.
And thus did the GOP reclaim the hearts and the minds of the American people, by remaining true to their principles even when so many suggested that simply tossing more red meat to the base was the safest way to proceed.
DougL
This is great news for John McCain!
SpotWeld
It’s all “crazy times” man.. crazy times.
slag
No way. This has got to be a joke. Maybe…
Davis X. Machina
Can you reduce the argument to a bumper sticker? If you can, Judge Sotomayor is in trouble.
If we were debating Ratification today, the Federalist Papers would be released as a set of refrigerator magnets.
I eep for the Republic.
The Moar You Know
Please God let Rush or someone of equal stature go public with this. It will be the final bullet in the collective head of the GOP.
Persia
@Davis X. Machina: I dunno, do you think “Hispanics are Weird” is a sufficiently catchy slogan?
NonyNony
Goddamn it. What’s with all these food posts? You people are making me hungry.
Anyone who has ever had rice, beans and pork will know that it is God’s food. Even though God hates pork. I’m pretty sure he makes an exception if you eat it with rice and beans. I’m a total white boy from the midwest suburbs and the first time I had it I fell in love.
cleek
pig tongue ?
sounds like Santareia, to me. nudge nudge. wink wink.
just saying.
move along.
Patrick
This is really starting to get fun ;-)
When the Dems took out Bork, it was after decades of rubber stamping judicial appointments. The simple fact that they were squawking for the first time, made people take notice. Bork was very radical, and his nomination was killed.
Sotomayor is obviously well qualified, not radical, and historic. The fact that the Repubs are going to Defcon 5 (or is it 1?) on her, is going to make it very hard for them to get any attention when the liberal Bork is nominated. Obama might not do it, but the stage is being set.
jibeaux
Mofongo is pretty good, and distinctly Puerto Rican. I don’t know why she didn’t mention that.
I went to Puerto Rico a couple of months ago, it was fantastic. If you didn’t have to find a job there, it would be the ideal place to live. Well, okay, they need better beer. Beer and jobs. But that’s all. And this paddle game. And this chair.
Napoleon
OT but TPM is reporting that Sestak is in against Spector.
AhabTRuler
You said it, brother. I “eep” pretty much anytime I turn on the news these days.
omen
@jibeaux:
wasn’t too humid?
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Davis X. Machina:
I know that’s a typo, but for some reason it comes out all kinds of awesome.
Davis X. Machina
It’s an ancient (ca. 1998/9) Salon TableTalk catchphrase. Some denizens of same — we’re the Old Bolsheviks of the blogosphere — will remember.
eugenia gonzalez
Patitas de cerdo con garbanzos is not pig’s tongue and ears.
It is pig’s feet with chickpeas.
Stooleo
I can totally see it. First day on the job she’ll arrive at the Supreme Court in a totally pimped out lowrider blasting “Black Magic Woman” by Santana. She’ll get in the building and say to Chief Justice Roberts “What’s up homes?”.
Oh yeah, I eep for the Republic too.
Tonal Crow
As usual, the wingnuts are pushing GOPaganda. The idea that judges’ decisions should not be influenced by who they are is an idealistic vision of impartiality. The idea that judges decisions are not influenced by who they are is a delusion. And the idea that wingnuts prefer impartial judges is unadulterated GOPaganda. Wingnuts love to decry “judicial activism”, but what they really mean by this is “an outcome that we dislike”. Thus wingnuts vociferously defend Bush v. Gore — perhaps the most activist decision in U.S. history [1] — but, with equal vigor, decry, for example, cases that have enforced the 4th Amendment’s core guarantees by holding that illegally-seized evidence can’t be used in criminal prosecutions.
What wingnuts say about courts — like pretty much everything else they say — is concerned almost solely with subjecting non-wingnuts to their control. Wingnuts are, simply, tyrants.
[1] The Bush v. Gore majority even admitted its activism in this remarkable sentence:
DougJ
More like “que pasa, esse?”
KG
@21: I have more than a few conservative friends who still think Bork got a raw deal (that’s what happens when you go to a very conservative law school). My only response is, “he called the Ninth Amendment an inkblot. How could you let someone on the Supreme Court who can’t even say what part of the Constitution means?”
devopsych
@Stooleo:
That would be awesome.
jibeaux
@omen:
Not in April staying close to the coast. It certainly could be in August in the interior (I’m guessing that “Explore Beyond The Shore” ad campaign is all about trying fruitlessly to get people off the beaches), but uninformed blanket proclamations are one of the perks of tourism, I think.
I also thought Portland, OR in August was heaven on earth, until I went to Portland, OR, in February.
demkat620
This meltdown by the GOP is even more extreme than I expected. They are just burning themselves every where.
Adrienne
@KRK: I don’t think my post means what you think it means.
It seems, to me at least, as though the use of the word “claims” was very obviously used to display the doubt or skepticism on the part of the writer. The fact that they can’t just take her at her word that she likes simple and traditional Puerto Rican dishes in addition to having some other, more “refined” tastes as well is telling – hence my making fun of them.
MP
Four stars (out of five) for the Texas Tornados reference. Come to think of it, I could use a Negra Modelo and a little music.
gocart mozart
Do we know if Sonomayer is not the illegitimate love child of Pablo Escobar. Has anyone seen the vault copy of her birth certificate?
Also, the syntax in her court opinions are remarkably similar to the syntax in John Cole’s posts. Is this just a coincidence or something more sinister.
Notorious P.A.T.
Haha )
LD50
Sorry if this was already mentioned elsewhere, but Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions says he doesn’t see Sotomayor being filibustered. If he’s right, and not lying, that means this is all just bullshit and Sotomayor will be on the court by fall.
El Cid
@MattF:
I really hadn’t thought of this one, but I like it. I like to imagine whining escaping through gritted teeth, and sweaty foreheads, and an attempt at covering the mouth with a hand, all to no avail, until it all bursts forth.
Laura W
Speaking of catchy bumper stickers, this on the car next to mine when I came out of Food Lion (keeping company with McFalin and E. Dole stickers):
Protect America
DETAIN OBAMA!
Gots to laugh. And I did. Aloud. Three times. It was a fun moment in my day.
TenguPhule
Fixed.
Just as fatal….eventually.
Tonal Crow
@KG: I had forgotten that stuff about Bork and the 9th Amendment. It is yet another reason to loathe him and his ilk. The very first rule for interpreting a text is to assume that its framers wrote every word for a reason. That the reason escapes (or, more likely, repels) Judge Bork does not make it a dead letter. Indeed, his is a particularly extreme form of the very “judicial activism” he decries.
gocart mozart
John, what are the odds that the wingnutosphere will link to my comment #36 and run with the theory that you are her svengali?
DanSmoot'sGhost
Another day at the funny farm. Hand wringing over what the judge has for dinner.
I like it, really. I hope that somebody brings this up in the confirmation hearings. I would love to hear her answer. I have a funny feeling that she is going to have a lot of fun at those hearings.
I predict an easy confirmation for her.
TenguPhule
Why is it that all of these private musings must be immediately paraded by our liberal media as examples of why this is the most liberal justice ever?
Is it too much to ask for some public musings?
eric
Here is the odd thing about the press: it will engage in the hysteria of the moment and then, when the “danger” has passed and the harm is done, they will go back and navel gaze and wonder if things should have been done differently.
So, when “Maria” is confirmed, the press will rehash all of the extreme stuff it is merely passing along now and that will hurt the GOP a second time with the brown people and the baby vessels, and certainly the brown baby vessels.
Is there an Obama Fu bumper sticker yet?
eric
gocart mozart
Bork also had very strange and extreme notions on the First amendment and I saw him recently on the Glenn Beck program advocating torture and he was rambling incoherently about how an investigation would turn us into a banana republic yada yada yada and Beck had to jump in a couple times to save him. Yes! Glenn Fucking Beck !11!
KRK
@Adrienne: My bad. Nevermind.
Emma
I’d like to point out that it’s gandules. Also, patitas de cerdo con garbanzo is not pig tongue and ears. It’s pig feet in a chickpea stew (yummy, btw).
Just to get the ethnic correct, so to speak.
Third Eye Open
I dunno about all this Puerto Rican food (except mango and cream cheese empinadas).
Give me a big ole plate of ropa vieja, negros frijoles and maduros, followed by a big ole’ helping of tres leche. Someone get the arterial stints ready, papi needs his medicine
Sasha
@TenguPhule:
Even better. A shot to the head won’t necessarily prevent reproduction.
Todd Dugdale
While it seems clear that the Republicans cannot really block Sotomayor’s nomination outright, Newt has strongly implied that they will use this event to “energise the base”.
That base is already near “outrage overdose”. It demands a constant fix of newer and crazier outrages, which is why “Dijongate” was created in the first place.
There seems to be real question if the Party can keep the frothing “base” from taking the fight to places where the GOP does not want it to go – such as open, racist smears against Hispanics – and ruining the chance of improving Party demographics.
The Republicans cannot credibly distance themselves from the base if things blow up. The leadership, in fact, may be forced to tacitly agree with the “energised wisdom” vomiting forth from the base.
KG
Tonal Crow: yeah, there’s activism on both sides. I haven’t seen enough of Alito or Roberts yet to weigh in on their style, but I’d call Thomas the only real originalist on the Supreme Court. Scalia is an opportunistic originalist, that is, originalism works very well for him when it provides the out come he wants. As for Stevens, Ginsberg, and Breyer, I’m not really bothered by any of their jurisprudence. I don’t necessarily agree with their jurisprudence, but reasonable minds can disagree.
Bork was just a very strange case, which we have from time to time. But the system worked well enough.
demkat620
O.M.G.
Godammit, now I’m hungry.
Svensker
Should be gandules y pernil. Obviously, no one at The Hill eats Spanish.
rikyrah
I’m starting to think that there’s something special going on here. The wingers have been (mostly) ‘holding it in’ about Obama for a year or more, but now with Sotomayor’s nomination, their poor little racism sphincters have finally just given up. It’s too much.
They are who we thought they were.
They can’t help themselves.
They WILL ask about the birth certificate. It’s coming. You know it.
Krista
For some strange reason, I now have in my head an image of Gino Conforti playing Felipe Gomez, saying “Hey, Jefe!” as he wipes his feet on Jack, Chrissy and Janet’s doormat.
No, I couldn’t find video, so your 70’s flashbacks will have to be imaginary.
garage mahal
There are times I think Obama does have this figured out. He knew wingnuts could never help themselves attacking a highly qualified hispanic female as “dumb”, and even attacking her name, thus pretty much locking up that voting bloc for decades. At the same time the attacks will galvanize a lethargic liberal base that’s in need of galvanizing.
eric
Is there any decision out there involving “Maria” where the parties are the Clintons, or better yet Marc Roth, or best yet, George Soros? Please god; oh please.
eric
Betsy
You people keep making me hungry at work, dammit! Stop that!
SLKRR
@NonyNony:
That explains why “God is Brazilian” and the Brazilian national food is feijoada.
Oh, and Puerto Rico, Brazil, what’s the difference? All those Hispanicano countries are the same, right?
Third Eye Open
@demkat620:
I have a wonderful Puerto Rican friend who would make those from scratch. Lets just say that I asked her to marry me more than once, based mainly on that quality.
I found that many of the same dishes were invented in “unique” ways between Cuba and Puerto Rico. I will always and forver love my Cuban roots, and the ability it affords me now and again to indulge in some home cooking from family in Miami. But I must admit that garbanzo beans and pigeon peas are a wonderful addition to classic Cuban cuisine that I wish I had been introduced to earlier in my culinary life.
gwangung
@garage mahal:
Personally, these are not ultra-smart moves–they’re just moderately smart ones.
The real genius is in not snapping at the troll bait, and only respond to adult moves. And that’s just competent politicking. (Which makes him a colossus these days, with all the mental midgets, Dems included, running around…)
schtum
It’s like they messed up the food names on purpose just to piss off any Puerto Rican readers.
eric
@schtum: puerto ricans can read? really?
Newt.
SLKRR
@schtum:
That’s because using proper Spanish spelling is unnatural in English.
SKapusniak
It always surprises me that when Bork is mentioned, that he being the one guy Nixon, during the Saturday Night Massacre, found in the justice department willing to fire the Special Prosecutor instead of refusing and tendering his resignation like his superiors did, doesn’t really come up.
That anyone had the chutzpah to nominate the guy for any position at all after that — okay, if he’d fired Cox and then actually did what he later said he’d wanted to do and resigned as well, maybe you’d have an argument that he hadn’t actually failed the big test, but that’s not what happened — seems to me the weird thing, not that he got chewed up and spat out by the Senate. But then I’m English, so I probably don’t understand all the subtlties.
Jager
Hungry? Try this sometime.
Grill a tuna steak, leave over night in the fridge, then:
Pull it apart gently with a fork and mix with onion, celery, chopped red and green peppers, give it a couple of hits of hot sauce, worcester, ground pepper, pinch of salt, a spoon of good stone ground mustard (French import of course!) mix it with Hellman’s Real Mayo, season it again to taste. Back in fridge for at least 4 hours…
Spread it on fresh, fucking french bread with either lettuce or chopped cabbage, a tomato slice and swiss cheese…
A couple of handfuls of Cape Cod chips and a nice glass of wine or a ice cold beer…carry it to the patio and eat it, you’ll be in heaven…money back if you’re not satisfied!
Adrienne
@KG:
I like you, but I’d call that Bullshit.
eric
@Adrienne: the best thomas decision is his concurrence in Lopez — the school gun case.
this guy wants to return to a commerce clause jurisprudence founded at the beginnng of the 19th century. It is the single most insane, put the technology genie back in the bottle, opinion ever.
eric
PGE
@KG:
I go a step further when arguing with Borktards, and point out that his reasoning is that he doesn’t believe that anyone is “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”. (Though, of course, he doesn’t phrase it that way.)He’s probably the most un-american, least suitable, person ever nominated. Generally, they’ve never read his legal writing and claim I’m lying.
LD50
@Adrienne:
Has Thomas ever voted differently from Scalia, ever?
Tonal Crow
@gwangung:
To the extent that he does this, yes. You have to dismiss the real wingnuts, lest you legitimize their arguments. As some wise-ard once said, “Don’t argue with idiots. First they’ll drag you down to their level, then they’ll beat you with experience”.
AhabTRuler
Well, natural law theory is on thin ground with a lot of people these days, but his BS about the IXth is insuperable.
eric
@LD50:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-1260.ZC1.html
Lopez. enjoy
TenguPhule
Activist Republican Shitholes.
Nuff said.
demkat620
You gotta love how this has scared the name brand Republicans in to the bunker. They are hiding, I imagine to wait for the polls to tell them how hard to go after her.
Kevin
Also from the article:
“Some Republican critics say these statements raise concerns about whether Sotomayor, who was raised under modest circumstances in the Bronx, would serve as a neutral arbiter in a case pitting a wealthy white male against a less wealthy man or woman of color.”
Of course, only a white man could possibly be a neutral arbiter…Do these people not realize that they’re being racist? Is it that hard to tell?
Tonal Crow
@eric:
Ya know, I agree with Thomas’s criticism of the precedents allowing Congress to regulate any activity that “substantially affects” interstate commerce — particularly because “substantially affects” is routinely read in the patently nonsensical form introduced by Wickard v. Filburn. Without this extraconstitutional power, the federal government could not, among other things, ruin a person’s life for the monstrous crime of growing a pot plant in her own backyard.
Screamin' Demon
Why did The Hill run an article by The Onion? Do they have some kind of joint operating agreement or something?
LD50
@eric:
I see no mention of Scalia there — am I missing something?
LD50
If BOB weren’t on a time out for racism, he’d tell us that even if there’s a valid birth certificate for her on file in the Bronx, her parents were born in Puerto Rico, which means she can’t be a ‘natural born’ US citizen.
The Tim Channel
The Thugs are SO SCREWED!!
I’m having a hard time coming to grips with the idea that they can ALL be so stupid, but it is what it is.
Pretty soon they’ll be all be one digit midgets. 9% approval ratings.
I love it.
Enjoy.
PGE
@AhabTRuler:
Well, I bring up “unalienable rights” when talking about Bork because, theoretically supportable or not, I think most Americans believe they’re “endowed” with them. And it makes the point, to people with no interest in the law, just how radical his views on the 9th are and how unfit for the court he was.
Anne Laurie
Hey, ‘Little Nino’ Scalia goes duck hunting with Dick ‘I shot my friend in the face and HE apologized to ME’ Cheney! Would you want to get on the wrong side of Nino, if you had to share a locker room with him?
chuck
Lopez was a rare example where I actually found myself agreeing with Thomas. The interstate commerce clause was a lame justification then, and was then and is now since the foundation for abuses of power the likes of which should outrage anyone on any side of the political spectrum.
I guess even Clarence Thomas can correctly point which direction the sun rises, though no doubt he would render precisely the opposite opinion if it served to oppress someone he didn’t like.
Dave_Violence
She deserves a solid grilling – just like any nominee for the Supreme Court. Of course, since George H.W. Bush first made her a federal judge, all liberals should be suspect. Since she is responsible for ending the baseball strike, she’s likely 99% qualified to be a judge on any court. However, judges don’t make policy, etc. and she needs to be grilled relentlessly for her remark that perhaps they do.
And, of course, we all know that someone born in Puerto Rico is an American citizen, right?
That is one of the reasons PRs consider themselves better than them other “hispanics.” This “latina” stuff is a bunch of boolshit. PR culture – and language, even – is about as similar to Mexican culture as a Cape Cod Clambake is to an Arkansas Pork BBQ.
Gabo
We really need to make a sociolinguistical flap out of this.
It’s possible Ms. Sotomayor pronounced “pernil” as “pernir.” The transformation of the terminal l to r in “pernil” is called rhotacism, and is more typical of the rural southwestern part of Puerto Rico, whereas lateralization (e.g. trabajal) is more frequently found in the urban northeast. Ms. Sotomayor’s mother is from Lajas, in the rural southwest.
At least she didn’t say “guandules” instead of “gandules.”