The Obamarama made his first pick for the Supremes today, Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Sotomayor has a pretty compelling back story. It appears she doesn’t have a long judicial trail. But nevertheless, one may count on the opposition party on the Senate Judiciary Committee to bruise the candidate as much as is possible. It’s not just a GOP thing, as one should only look back at Justice Samuel Alito’s nomination hearings after President Shrub appointed him.
It seems for as long as I can remember and I am more than a half-century old the opposition party in the Senate has made the confirmation hearings a spectacle more like “Batter the court nominee.” Were such an exercise both useful and expeditious, then perhaps I would think better of it. But I think that it is pretty simple to understand the hearings for a prospective justice are nothing more than a political opportunity that both sides can exploit for their bases who are really riled up about hot-button court issues.
Then again, if Congress would only do what it needed to do in order to better the nation as a whole I am sure we would probably accuse them of being on drugs. And, most likely, they would have to all be smoking something if the members actually did their jobs in Congress rather than play politics.