GOP Insiders Reluctant To Block Sotomayor
While conservative talk show hosts and some GOP politicians sound ready to man the barricades to stop Judge Sonia Sotomayor from joining the SCOTUS, Republican participants in the latest National Journal Insiders Poll don't think it would be politically smart to try to stop her. Of the 89 Republican Insiders who responded to this week's survey, 64% said it would not be politically smart for Republicans to try to block her confirmation, while 24% said it would be. Another 12% said the answer to that question depends on what additional information comes out about her in the confirmation process.
Not surprisingly, an overwhelming 89% of the 92 Democratic Insiders who responded to the poll said it would not be politically smart for Republicans to try to block her.
The Republican Insiders who were against trying to block Sotomayor listed several reasons for not doing so, including:
-- such a move would alienate Hispanic voters from whom the GOP cannot afford to loose any more support;
-- it could also antagonize many women, another group to which the party needs to build more bridges;
-- she can't be that liberal if she was first appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush;
-- and her life story as the daughter of a single mom who goes on get an Ivy League education and a seat on the Federal judiciary would be compelling to many Americans.
And as a backdrop for many of these comments was a general belief that Republicans in the Senate couldn't find the 41 votes necessary to filibuster her nomination. So why pick a fight you can't win? As one Republican Insider put it, "Don't rain on big Latino parades, especially when the outcome is already certain."
Among the 24% of GOP Insiders who thought it would be politically smart for the party to try to block Sotomayor's confirmation the reasons given were:
-- it would appeal and energize the GOP base which is still in a bit of a funk;
-- the only way for the out-of-power Republican Party to build support is by creating distinctions and "drawing lines" with the Democrats;
-- and Sotomayor's a liberal.
There is also a sense among some Republican Insiders that it's payback time for the Democrats who put Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito through the Senate confirmation wringer back in 2005 when they were appointed by President George W. Bush. No doubt, Democrats played hardball, especially with Alito. But at the end of the day the Democrats in the Senate who had 45 members of their caucus at the time compared to the 40 the Republicans count today weren't able to block either Bush nominee. And the reviews after those confirmation fights were over were generally unflattering for the Democrats.
