Sonia Montemayor - A Brilliant Selection

Once again President Barack Obama demonstrates his consummate skill at the game of hard-ball politics. His choice of Sonia Montemayor to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter was brilliant on several counts and places the Republicans in an untenable position of attacking a female Hispanic with all the needed qualifications and credentials for the job.

Of course, they’ll inflame the throngs of slack-jawed, mouth-breathing no-necks and knuckle-draggers who have become the “base of the party” with dire imprecations and warnings of a liberal, left-leaning judge taking the court into the briar patch of “ultra liberalism” or maybe even "SOCIALISM" based on empathy and feelings.

But, any fair-minded person (this means virtually everyone except conservatives and Republicans) will quickly see that not only does that old dog not hunt, it don’t even leave the porch! I’ll not bore you with case law, but I will assert this: Any in-depth examination of her past opinions and rulings will reveal that she is primarily very moderate, centrist and invariably on the side of the law.

The right-wing nabobs of negativism will natter endlessly about empathy and feelings not being a part of law when what they really mean is that they do not want a woman from humble origins interpreting law. They would prefer another middle-aged, white-guy, child of privilege, and scion of eastern establishment background and ivy-league education protecting them from the rigorous demands of the Constitution.

But, the president has snookered them, and placed them in the position of challenging a highly qualified female Hispanic merely while posturing in defense of an ideology which each day becomes more irrelevant. There is no winning for them and that is the brilliance of this particular nomination. It is not that she is female, or that she is Hispanic, it is that she is extremely well qualified, experienced and credentialed which leaves them only ideology. And that issue is belied by her record.

They’ll huff and they’ll puff, but in the end they’ll fold their tents and try to pick a different fight on a different day because in this particular battle, President Obama has adroitly removed all their weapons.