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Obama Says Political Games Are at Play, With Some Painting Distorted Picture of Sotomayor

May 30, 2009 3:01 AM

From Sunlen Miller:

In his weekly address, President Obama calls on Congress to “avoid political posturing” and to move with speed to put his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, on the high court without delay.

“I hope the confirmation process will begin without delay,” Obama says in his address, “No nominee should be seated without rigorous evaluation and hearing; I expect nothing less. But what I hope is that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this process, and Congress, in the past. Judge Sotomayor ought to be on the bench when the Supreme Court decides what cases to hear this year and I’m calling on Democrats and Republicans to be thorough, and timely in dealing with this nomination.”

Amid criticisms already mounting from the right over his choice, the President addressed those critics, and specifically their picking over of some comments made by Sotomayor in the past.

“There are, of course, some in Washington who are attempting to draw old battle lines and playing the usual political games, pulling a few comments out of context to paint a distorted picture of Judge Sotomayor’s record," Obama said. "But I am confident that these efforts will fail.”

The president said Sotomayor’s judicial decisions over her 17-year record on the bench speak “far louder than any attack.”

“As a fellow judge on her court, appointed by Ronald Reagan, said recently, ‘I don’t think I’d go as far as to classify her in one camp or another. I think she just deserves the classification of outstanding judge,’” Obama said, referring to comments made by Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Roger Miner.

-Sunlen Miller

May 30, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (83)

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Distorted pictures, I would say the pictures can not be more clear....

Norman Thomas Quote:
"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

Sotomayor quoted Thomas on her year book: ( a guy that ran 5 consc years for P of Socialist Party ) " I am not a champion of lost causes, but causes not yet won " I would say she got a good shot at her dreams now. She will have an very active agenda.

She will be pushing a active liberal agenda just like Obama is. Bye Bye, private industry, Wall street and free America. Just get used to it folks. Obama is painting a gruesome distorted picture just yesterday talking about GM, to the applaud of liberal slobbering bozos. He is in charge of GM and he wanst small cheap car for all americans periord! SEE? Liberal fast toward socialism agenda.

Posted by: ariaeye | Jun 2, 2009 8:51:24 AM

..everyone is begging for mercy, but no one knows the meaning of the word..

Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 31, 2009 3:03:16 PM

of.. Painting Distorted Picture..
"Surely all art is a lie,"

Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 31, 2009 2:52:36 PM

INCOMING>>>>>

There seems to be a rather large right wing presence on this ABC blog. Does anybody know what happened to the Main Stream Media's Liberal bias? Well, at least, 'Google Alerts' gets it right!

Could it be that the reason why Conservative extremists do not understand that their slander & lies hurt other people, is that 90% of them can not accurately define "empathy".
In practice, this would indicate that the term 'Conservative Empathy', is an oxymoron.

Posted by: SirScud | May 31, 2009 12:53:47 PM


This guy can't do anything right. I never thought I'd see the day when this great country would fall for an idiot like Obama. God help us.

Posted by: CJ | May 31, 2009 2:03:35 AM

I think the first play in the "political game" was when Obama selected Sotomayor based on her favorable demographics. Hypocrisy seems to be his specialty.

Posted by: paul | May 30, 2009 10:31:29 PM

The conservatives believe the courts belong to them? I hope you don't feel this way Jake?

Posted by: Robert | May 30, 2009 9:13:57 PM

She will be approved but it is nothing but another campaign promise being completed. Lets omit that the administration is playing the political game at a different level. In instead of this issue we should be concern with his willingness to get chummy with our enemies and alienate our friends.

Posted by: William | May 30, 2009 6:48:06 PM

badger:"Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, a radical hispanic activist group getting federal tax dollar funding from the U.S. La Raza translates to "The Race"

Their ideology is "Everything for The Race, NOTHING for the rest."

What nonsense. The National Council of La Raza has never used, and publicly and unequivocally has rejected the motto “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada." Please cite your baseless slander.

Posted by: jhw539 | May 30, 2009 6:25:21 PM

Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, a radical hispanic activist group getting federal funding fron the U.S. La Raza translates to "The Race"

Their ideology is "Everything for The Race, NOTHING for the rest.

She is not fit to serve on Any COURT IN THE LAND. Anybody trying to spin this blatant travesty is either a complete ignoramus, or evil.

Posted by: badger | May 30, 2009 6:07:21 PM

Re: "SHE was the one that made the ethnic emphasis in a speech and shown bias in her rulings."

She hasn't shown any bias in her rulings. She rules based on the law. You just don't like the law.

Posted by: bubbles | May 30, 2009 2:54:00 PM

Nothing is being taken "out of context"!
The president is a flat out liar.
Sotomayer did make the racist statement
about Latinas being able to come to a
better conclusion than White Males.
What part of that statement was taken
out of context?
Sotomayer did say that it was ok to
legislate from the bench.
She even caught herself and tried to
make light of her remark.
What part of that comment was taken
out of context?
Her decision in the New Haven Conn
Firefighters case clearly ignored the
racist decision denying the firefighters
there well earned promotions!
The only one distorting things here is
the president who seems to think he
is a god who must be obeyed blindlessly
and never questioned!
Enjoy it now Mr President you'll be
voted out in 2012! Count on it!

Posted by: reaganfan | May 30, 2009 2:51:48 PM

It doesn't matter what President Obama says there are people here who will smear him for it. Same people almost everyday, with the same personal agenda to smear the president.

It reminds me of the story of the little boy who cried 'wolf!' over and over again until people just didn't listen anymore.

Posted by: danita | May 30, 2009 2:23:55 PM

Obama thinks no one and i mean no one should question him on anything he says or does...We as the people of this great nation are not allowed to go against the almighty Obama...

Posted by: whatid | May 30, 2009 2:20:27 PM

Should we ignore a racist statement when it was uttered by a Supreme Court nominee? Obama said she didnt word it correctly. Should we take her ability to word things correctly into consideration for someone who will "word things" for a living?

Posted by: zeke | May 30, 2009 2:15:54 PM

It's kind of like Pelosi dismissing the media on her waterboarding approval. "I have spoken, so blindly obey!!"

Posted by: obama=socialsim | May 30, 2009 2:12:54 PM

Give me a break! All you people do is rag on President Obama ALL the time about EVERYTHING non-stop.

Posted by: V. Brame | May 30, 2009 2:12:43 PM

Obama thinks no one and i mean no one should question him on anything he says or does...We as the people of this great nation are not allowed to go against the almighty Obama...

Posted by: whatif | May 30, 2009 2:05:38 PM

Oh give me a break...and the democrats weren't political with any of George Bush's court nominees. Shumer was viscous and Obama wanted to filibuster Roberts. When will American's WAKE UP to the tyranny that is happening right under your eyes.....or is American Idol or baseball more important than your freedoms? Remember the story about the frogs in the boiling water and what happened to them...

Posted by: butterflylady | May 30, 2009 2:00:29 PM

be wary of this man he wants to push everything thru without looking at it. He did a wonderful job on the stimulus nobody read it and look at the pork in it. Socialists jam everything down your throat as fast as they can then you are stuck with garbage.

Posted by: Johnq | May 30, 2009 1:47:26 PM

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