Republicans are consumed with fear that Obama will nominate a black woman or even a gay, handicapped, black woman, who’s an immigrant who’s a radical. It’s not gonna happen even if former Georgia Supreme Court chief justice Leah Ward Sears is on the short list. There’s too much racial animosity among whites already. I truly wish this were not the case, and I will be thrilled to be wrong. Leah Ward Sears would be a great addition to the High Court. She’d be easily confirmed. But following up Sotomayor with Sears would send a good part of this country around the bend, and I can’t see the administration doing that with the polls the way they are currently. Say what you will about the obnoxious, racist comments from the Right, but they do, unfortunately, have their fingers on the pulse of their redneck communities.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
if current discussion holds any water, the eventual choice may not be one that pleases Progressives.
The ‘short list’ looks interesting, though: I’m content to hold off on any opinions until I see things narrowing down to 2-3 possibilities…
The rednecks aren’t voting for Obama anyway…
so, yes, I wanna see a Black woman.
fuck them.
ditto.
And then what? They’ll both get chewed up as Black racists. You’ll have a few Democrats on tv hemming and hawing with polite tepid support. The MSM will side with the GOP. Blacks folks and white progressives alike will sit on their asses as they’ve done since the President has been elected. They’ll have to drop her then Tavia Smiley, the CBC et al will be screaming betrayal. Did I miss anything?
I don’t agree. She’d be confirmed pretty easily. That isn’t why she’s so unlikely to get picked. The entire Obama-is-a-Kenyan-socialist meme is based on the idea that Obama is only going to look out for his own. It’s a perception he overcame in the general election.
538
538
But those voters are leaving Obama in droves. And they’re the voters who the Blue Dogs need.
It’s completely political. If Obama picks Sears after Obama, it will solidify the argument the Palinites have been making since September 2008. I really doubt Obama wants any part of it.
On the other hand, this is a lifetime position and Obama is pretty passionate about the Court, so he could pleasantly surprise me.
Preach
I think you’re a little too pessimistic. My concern with Sears (and I really like her, I think) is that she doesn’t have much experience. Traffic court?
Also she’s a friend of Thomas.
I’m also wondering, how did she vote on the Troy Davis case? Did she dissent?
But I like her name. Liked it so much I named my daughter that, in fact. 🙂
Sears was the first African-American chief justice of the Georgia supreme court. She has plenty of experience.
She wrote a dissent in the Troy Davis case, saying that Davis should have another trial based on new evidence.
The redneck community is a dwindling minority, however loud-mouthed they are. The burning question: is Sarah Palin a redneck?
Trailer Trash
No, redneck:
How would sending the crazies around the bend (which seems like a redundancy anyway) affect the polls? The teabaggers would suddenly start saying all is well and we’re just one happy family because some whitebread man got the nomination? You know that’s ridiculous. Their “pulse” is irrelevant because it has no mechanism for modulation.
I can’t tell from this post if you think Obama shouldn’t appoint a highly qualified black woman to the SC or you think the Administration won’t, because of the potential reaction of the “redneck communities”. But either way, if appeasing the “redneck communities” has become a standard to consider then we are in bigger trouble than I thought. If Obama doesn’t want to have to fight for a highly qualified nominee, whoever he or she is, (see Dawn Johnsen}, then that is a major reflection on him and his team and extremely disappointing.
I’d be thrilled if he picked Sears. I’d also be significantly more concerned about the prospect of losing the House, the Senate, or both.
So you are admitting the Democrats have no plans to turn out the vote this fall? That they’ve resigned themselves to the 1994 strategy off pissing off the base?
That’s kind of an annoying question because it’s inaccurate and doesn’t follow logically from anything I’ve said.
Nominating Sears would motivate some members of the base and totally alienate others (white rank-and-file labor, for example). But, more importantly, there is no single candidate for the Supreme Court they need to pick in order to fire up the base. And, in fact, firing up our base over the pick is going to fire up the Republicans’ base even more because they ALWAYS care 100 times more than we do about the Supreme Court. So, I neither concede that the Democrats have no plan to fire up their base nor accept your premise that they must nominate Sears to do so, nor your assumption that a fight over the SCOTUS benefits us electorally. It never has, and it probably never will.
Well .. I didn’t mean Sears in particular .. but the bigger question is .. why wouldn’t it benefit us electorally? Because the left is dumb to the effect the Supreme Court can have? Some other reason?
Let’s say you have two children and they both love baseball. But one child lives for baseball. They watch every game and know all the stats. And let’s say you get your two children tickets to go see their favorite team play their hated rival. Are both kids going to be fired up? Sure. But one kid is going to really fired up.
Now, imagine you only have one ticket. Who do you give it to? Why?
That’s all you need to know about why we’ll never win a base war over a SCOTUS nominee. We want to legislate. The Republicans want to own the Supreme Court.
There are parts of the Dem base that get very fired up about the Court – social libertarians, pro-choice voters.
Labor doesn’t, to my limited knowledge, but a good argument could be made that they should. Aren’t they at least as affected by a pro-corporate Court? Look at Lilly Ledbetter.
The part of the base that really cares about the Supreme Court is already voting in primaries and in every general. Yes, we can turn out more irregular voters on the issue of the Court by having a high profile fight about the stakes, but we’ll never match the boost in intensity that will give the right.
Remember, right-wing voters don’t want the government to do anything. Keep us safe, keep taxes low, and don’t change a damn thing. The action they want to see is a roll-back of abortion rights, and prayer in school, and an incorporation of the 2nd Amendment. Everything they really want, only the Supreme Court can do.
That’s why the Court is everything to them. They tried to compete with us on health care, but their base didn’t care as much as ours, and we won. Well the SCOTUS is to them what health care is to us. It’s a life-long battle and dream. And they are so close. If McCain had won, and he was replacing Stevens, we’d be fighting for a pro-choice justice right now, and probably losing the fight.
At this point a “Leftist ideologue” to these assholes is “Anyone who believes in evolution and a woman’s right to vote.”
Hey, those weren’t originally in the Constitution, so anyone who might rule that way can’t be a “strict constitutionalist” or whatever.
I read somewhere that Hilary might make the short-list. But why not Bill? He’s out of a job. Has energy and brains, is white and southern – and his nomination will serve to marginalise the teabaggers bound to oppose him..
hillary’s staying at state according to the whitehouse:
nominating bill would send the RATs and the lunatic fringe into apoplexy though…talk about exploding heads.
It would send me into apoplexy too.
One of the few times I disagree with you.
That side of the aisle is still pissed about him bowing. And him propping his shoes up on a desk. And not wearing a tie in the Oval Office all the time.
So … I say … fizzuck that crowd.
Let them throw another temper tantrum.
As if I give a $#!t.
They ain’t voting for him or us anyway.