Lindsey Graham’s hectoring, condescending Sotomayor interrogation
Watching a parade of withered, old white, southern men of the Senate school marming Judge Sonia Sotomayor throughout the day today, from reformed race-baiting commie hunter Jeff Sessions — himself a federal judge reject — to the tisking, absolutely condescending school nun act Lindsey Graham put on this afternoon was draining — more so I’m sure for Sotomayor than me, but there you go. What I do know is that I can’t imagine a white candidate, or more particularly a white male candidate — would be questioned in quite that fashion. Watch, if you can stand it (or read the transcript — but trust me, unless you can do Graham’s voice in your head, it loses something in the reading…)
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Miss Lindsey hit an all-time low, recycling of long-since discredited gossip from TNR’s Jeremy Rosen:
GRAHAM: OK. Now, let’s talk about you. I like you, by the way, for whatever that matters. Since I may vote for you that ought to matter to you. One thing that stood out about your record is that when you look at the almanac of the federal judiciary, lawyers anonymously rate judges in terms of temperament. And here’s what they said about you. She’s a terror on the bench. She’s temperamental, excitable, she seems angry. She’s overall aggressive, not very judicial. She does not have a very good temperament. She abuses lawyers. She really lacks judicial temperament. She believes in an out — she behaves in an out-of-control manner. She makes inappropriate outbursts. She’s nasty to lawyers. She will attack lawyers for making an argument she does not like. She can be a bit of a bully. When you look at the evaluation of the judges on the Second Circuit, you stand out like a sore thumb in terms of your temperament. What is your answer to these criticisms?
SOTOMAYOR: I do ask tough questions at oral arguments.
And:
GRAHAM: If I may interject, judge, they find you difficult and challenging more than your colleagues. And the only reason I mention this is that it stands out. When you — there are many positive things about you and these hearings are designed to talk about the good and the bad and I never liked appearing before a judge that I thought was a bully. It’s hard enough being a lawyer, having your client there to begin with, without the judge just beating you up for no good reason. Do you think you have a temperament problem?
SOTOMAYOR: No, sir. I can only talk about what I know about my relationship with the judges of my court and with the lawyers who appear regularly from our circuit. And I believe that my reputation is stuck as such that I ask the hard questions, but I do it evenly for both sides.
GRAHAM: And in fairness to you, there are plenty of statements in the record in support of you as a person, that do not go down this line. But I will just suggest to you, for what it’s worth, judge, as you go forward here, that these statements about you are striking. They’re not about your colleagues. The ten-minute rule applies to everybody and that obviously you’ve accomplished a lot in your life, but maybe these hearings are time for self-reflection. This is pretty tough stuff that you don’t see from — about other judges on the second circuit.
And this from the guy who thought John McCain had the temperament to be president … with his finger on the button… All that was left for Graham to do was to send the judge to the corner to think about what she’s done in time out. What a performance. The judge, for her part, was sober and tough, and didn’t let the circus act get her down. Good for her.
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[...] The only Republican to vote in favor of her was Lindsey Graham, which is interesting, given his tisking, Catholic school nun performance during her confirmation hearings. Meanwhile, Utah’s Orrin Hatch had already put the [...]
[...] We can’t forget here that Sen. Graham was the one who infamously told Sotomayor that she should use the hearings to do a little “self-reflection” because she was, according to Graham, a “bully” while on the Second Circuit before [...]