Thread: The GOP's road map to obscurity NAVARRETTE

The GOP's road map to obscurity

By Ruben Navarrette
2:00 a.m. June 3, 2009

America's largest minority would neutralize its power if it were taken for granted by one party and written off by another.

So I cringe when I think of the damage that Republicans do to their brand by treating U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor with the one thing that many Latinos will not tolerate – disrespect. They know that President Barack Obama's first nominee to the Supreme Court has the goods.

Summa cum laude from Princeton. Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Seventeen years on the federal bench. She didn't just play the game; she dominated it.

After more than 20 years of writing about diversity issues, I knew Sotomayor would be in for a rough ride. Some of her critics on talk radio and in the news media have for years clung to the idea that white males are being discriminated against by affirmative action. However, the attacks against Sotomayor were much swifter and uglier than I imagined.

In fact, I don't even think the White House could have hoped things would turn out this well for the administration and the Democratic Party.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel must have known that he was putting Republicans in a box and making it hard for them to derail the first Latina Supreme Court justice. But how could he have known that so many in the GOP would willingly step into the box, lock it from the inside, then blow it up with irresponsible, hateful and disrespectful language?

All because Sotomayor said in a speech almost a decade ago: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.â€

the one thing that many Latinos will not tolerate – disrespect.

But it's O.K. for them to disrespect our country by violating our immigration laws?

And then they get all uppity if anyone says anything that they don't like.

Umm...Democrats wouldn't even give Miguel Estrada an up or down vote. That "disrespect" didn't seem to throw Latinos any. And since when is expressing opposition to racist statements "disrepsect?" Since when is expecting a Supreme Court justice to be able to issue rulings based on the law and our Constitution rather than bias "disrespect?" I think it is "disrespectful" to expect Americans to just sit quietly and not express their concerns.

No, seriously...Sotomayor openly states that policy is made from the bench, buries the case of the firefighters in New Haven, states that a "wise Latina woman" would make "better" rulings than white men, and "conservatives" are "racist" for expressing opposition??? What upside-down world is this guy living in? God forbid anyone insult THE RACE by treating them as anyone else making these comments would be treated.

What? No mention of La Raza.