Did you know? The Patriot Post is funded 100% by its readers. Help us stay front and center in the fight for Liberty and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign.

August 13, 2009

The Other ‘Hispanic’ Nominee

“For the first time in a long time,” said one “Hispanic” man in the street interviewed on cable television, “I feel really proud.” Others in the “Hispanic community” rejoiced as Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in her statement at the beginning of Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, said: “Your nomination I view with a great sense of personal pride. You are indeed a very special woman. You have overcome adversity and disadvantages (emphasis added).” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, “Judge Sotomayor, you have overcome many obstacles (emphasis added) in your life that have given you an understanding of the daily realities and struggles faced by everyday people.”

“For the first time in a long time,” said one “Hispanic” man in the street interviewed on cable television, “I feel really proud.” Others in the “Hispanic community” rejoiced as Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in her statement at the beginning of Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, said: “Your nomination I view with a great sense of personal pride. You are indeed a very special woman. You have overcome adversity and disadvantages (emphasis added).” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, “Judge Sotomayor, you have overcome many obstacles (emphasis added) in your life that have given you an understanding of the daily realities and struggles faced by everyday people.”

Let’s talk about the obstacles, adversity and disadvantages of another Hispanic nominee, one whom many thought – pre-Sotomayor – worthy of future consideration as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

Born in Honduras – the child of a broken home – this nominee immigrated to the United States at 17 years of age, arriving with a limited command of the English language. The nominee’s mother spoke no English. But four years later, the nominee graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. The nominee went on to Harvard Law School, served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and received a Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude.

The nominee served as a clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, practiced law in New York, and then served as an assistant U.S. attorney, later joining the Justice Department as an assistant to the solicitor general for the Clinton administration.

Overcoming personal adversity? The nominee’s spouse died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills, after the couple had suffered through a miscarriage.

The American Bar Association – whose evaluation was once hailed as “the gold standard by which judicial candidates are judged,” by Senate Judiciary Committee member (and current chairman) Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. – unanimously gave the nominee its top “well-qualified” rating. Yet the nominee – despite an admirable record of overcoming personal and professional “obstacles” and “adversity” – met with a hailstorm of opposition, including a filibuster to prevent an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.

The Senate only had 55 votes to end the filibuster, but it requires 60 votes to end one. If the Democrats had allowed a full vote, the nominee would have had enough Senate votes to reach confirmation. After all, Clarence Thomas only got 52 votes for his confirmation. Finally, because of fierce opposition by Democratic senators – including the lengthy, seven-month filibuster staged as a procedure-delaying tactic to deny a full Senate confirmation vote – the nominee withdrew in 2003. “This should serve as a wake-up call to the White House that it cannot simply expect the Senate to rubber-stamp judicial nominees,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

The nominee was Miguel Estrada.

Then-President George W. Bush, in 2001, nominated him to the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Had Estrada secured the nomination – and had Republicans retained the White House in 2008 – many would have placed Estrada on the list of possible future Supreme Court justices. He, not Sotomayor, could have become that court’s first Hispanic justice. Instead, the “minority-sensitive” Democrats treated him like a child molester. One staff strategy memo sent to Sen. Durbin in 2001 – when the Democrats ran the Senate Judiciary Committee – called Estrada “especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino (emphasis added), and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., days before chairing a Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing on Miguel Estrada, told the liberal magazine The Nation: “(Estrada) is like a Stealth missile – with a nose cone – coming out of the right wing’s deepest silo (emphasis added).” When, however, President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor, Schumer regained his “compassion” for minorities: “(Republicans) oppose her at their peril.”

Opposition to someone’s nomination on ideological grounds or “judicial philosophy” is fair game – irrespective of the nominee’s race, ethnicity or gender. But Democrats consider sob stories of Democratic nominees relevant to show “obstacles” overcome and “adversity” conquered. But as to the sympathetic “back story” of a Republican nominee – who cares? It means little or nothing – even in the case of a racial or ethnic “first” – if nominated by the wrong party.

Democrats market themselves as the party of compassion and sensitivity to racial and ethnic minorities. But they do so only selectively. A Republican nominee like Miguel Estrada becomes a “sellout” or a “Tio Taco.” Similarly, Justice Clarence Thomas, following his nomination by then-President George Herbert Walker Bush, found himself caricatured on the cover of a national black magazine as a mammy-style, handkerchief-capped “Uncle Thomas.”

“Hispanic pride” and “overcoming obstacles” only count when the “good guys” say so.

COPYRIGHT 2009 LAURENCE A. ELDER
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.