"You don't need the bullet, when you got the ballot"

A couple weeks ago President BO named his first Supreme Court nominee. As always happens when a new nominee is named, the circus came to The Beltway. As soon as Judge Sotomayor was nominated, Republicans immediately decried the choice for no apparent reason and Democrats lauded it, also for no apparent reason. The biggest criticism of Sotomayor has been her voting record as it relates to race issues. Many Republican leaders consistently level a charge of reverse racism against her. As with so many things our elected officials do, this is inherently stupid. There is no such thing as "reverse racism". Racism is when a member of one race holds prejudice against or dislike of members of another race based on no other factors than their ethnic background. You are either a racist or you are not (she most certainly is). If there was such a thing as "reverse racism", that would actually be a good thing. It would, by definition, be the absence of these prejudices. It is, in fact, what we should all be striving for. So while the Republicans need to get a better understanding of proper nomenclature, they are probably on the right path because Judge Sotomayor has a record of prejudices against Caucasians. Whether that comes from her background as a minority is inconsequential. It also comes off as a bit disingenuous coming from a graduate of Yale Law school. Regardless, she will no doubt be confirmed based in large part to her ethnic background and the Democratic majority in Congress. So, really, all of this is political grandstanding in its most appalling form.