No doubt Sonia Sotomayor’s obscure appearance on a Duke University panel will be one of the video hits ^[1] of the Internet this week and possibly for a few weeks to come. It should be. What’s interesting – and revealing – about the video is the collusive laughter between Sotomayor and the audience about legislating from the bench – something Obama assured us in his introduction of the jurist she does not do. Maybe Sonia should try stand up.

Let me hasten to say that this is not a simple matter. Sometimes judicial intervention may be merited, but it should be used with great restraint. Nevertheless, I don’t much care for this statement by Sotomayor: ‘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 ^[2]‘…

Frankly, I’ve had enough of this puerile racist crapola. A few decades back it was excusable, maybe even justifiable. Now it’s downright reactionary. Let’s hope Sotomayor can rise above it, because it’s likely she will be confirmed