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The Story Behind The Story Behind Sonia Sotomayor

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   HOUSTON, Texas — You would think newsrooms and media producers would have looked up the text of what Judge Sonia Sotomayor said eight years ago in that “wise Latina woman” statement.

   In her next sentence, Sotomayor mentioned the influence of social perceptions and said she is reminded that each day “I render decisions that affect people concretely.”

   And why does this matter?

   Because, she said, “I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences.”

   So isn’t that the reassurance, given in the original statement, that her detractors presume she hasn’t provided yet?

   The oversight has been allowed to spark fireworks because many of her detractors either (1) don’t read, (2) don’t fact-check, (3) don’t care what the facts are, or (4) the media have used a poor choice of experts who divert the issue at hand and give the story fresh legs.

   When something as momentous as a Supreme Court appointment is at stake, you would think law school scholars and those who ponder long and hard about the Constitution would get called on for their analyses and appraisals, as opposed to out-of-office political hacks.

   Although a few of the more conservative U.S. Senate members have demonstrated their willingness to give Sotomayor a fair shake, some really squirrelly characters have skewed the discussion.

   Enter former Congressman Tom Tancredo, who left Congress after leading losing battles to criminalize unauthorized immigrants. He announced for the U.S. Presidency but his campaign fizzled almost instantly. Other members of the congressional coalition he led were rejected at the polls in November. In the presidential vote, the party he helped confuse was discredited.

   Given this background, one would wonder what qualifies the congressional castoff from Colorado as a judicial expert?

   Well, last month some TV producers resurrected him to stimulate controversy. They succeeded in managing a fake asymmetrical matching of wits.

   Tancredo’s credentials aren’t about judicial matters. His specialty, whether you agree with his positions or not, is immigration. He opened his mouth anyway and told CNN’s Rick Sánchez that Sonia Sotomayor was a member of “a Latino KKK,” referring to the National Council of La Raza, a respected civil rights organization. 

What would make him go so far off-topic and accusatorial?

   There are clues. Back in 2001, a 14-year-old honor student whose exemplary academic achievements were featured in the press mentioned that the boy was undocumented. Tancredo used his congressional position to urge the INS to seize and deport the youth. His action coincidentally followed a Denver Post story disclosing that the congressman had hired a construction crew that included two undocumented laborers to do some work on his home.

   Tancredo said at the time, “I haven't the foggiest idea how many of those people may have been here illegally, and it is not my job to ask them.”

   Or was he trying to deflect something that happened more recently? During his aborted presidential campaign, his speech writer, Marcus Epstein, executive director of Team America PAC, was walking down a Washington street making offensive remarks when he encountered an African-American woman. He uttered the n-word at her and assaulted her with a karate chop, according to an off-duty Secret Service agent, who witnessed the offense and arrested Epstein. Epstein pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in July.

   Tancredo runs Team America PAC with Bay Buchanan, his former campaign manager and sister of MSNBC commentator Patrick Buchanan.

   Disingenuously, he told The Denver Post that what made the assault newsworthy “is the fact that it comes in the context of the Sotomayor thing."

   No, Mr. Tancredo, the incident was a hate crime until it was downsized in a plea bargain. Mr. Epstein, your employee, close advisor and confident, committed a criminal act worthy of a KKK member. But despite that, despite any of our life experiences, Epstein gets a fair hearing and a just sentence.

   That’s the judicial standard Judge Sotomayor was talking about. Now do you get it?

  [José de la Isla’s latest book, Day Night Life Death Hope, is distributed by The Ford Foundation. He writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service and is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (2003). E-mail him at [email protected].]

   © 2009

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