Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “rejected charges Sunday that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is a racist,” The Hill reports.
Asked if he agreed with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh that Sotomayor is a racist, the South Carolina Republican said he disagreed.
“No, they interject themselves in the debate. They have got an audience to entertain and Newt is a political commentator. I’m a United States senator,” Graham said on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace. “I don’t think she’s a racist. She should be proud of what she has accomplished in life.”
Senator Graham also “highlighted comments from a speech Sotomayor gave in 2001 that suggested that she, a Latina women, would make a better judge than a white man because of her life experiences.” He hopes Judge Sotomayor will apologize.
Graham said the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit judge should retract that statement.
“What she said was that based on her life experiences she thought that a Latina woman, somebody with her background, would be a better judge than a guy like me, a white guy from South Carolina. It is troubling,” Graham said. “It’s inappropriate and I hope she will apologize.”
Meanwhile, Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) cited “the judge’s ‘extraordinary record’ — 17 years on the bench and superb academic credentials with degrees from Princeton and Yale — as evidence that she is an unbiased judge.”
“I think it is fair to ask her about the question but she has a long, solid record that shows she is fair and not biased,” Specter said.
The Pennsylvania senator also said Sotomayor’s race would be an asset to the Supreme Court, saying the judgment and experience she would bring as the first Hispanic justice would add to the court’s deliberations.
“The diversity and point of view of a Latina women is significant. It adds to the mix,” Specter said.
Congress in Your Pocket
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