'Wise Latina Woman' Wisely Impassive Through Mispronunciations and Metaphors

Nothing says "judicial temperament'' like the ability to sit motionless -- placid but not complacent, sober yet unoffended, pleasant yet unamused -- while a bunch of guys who talk for a living take repeated jabs at your "prejudices, biases and passions,'' your "troubling rulings'' and your "political and social agenda.''

Somehow, despite an apparently crippling level of empathy, Sonia Sotomayor remained impassive through various mispronunciations of her name and the fourth retelling of what Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, called "her now-famous remarks about a 'wise Latina woman' making better decisions than other judges.'' Though she may have wanted to respond, "All my years in public life and that's the best you can come up with?'' her expression was exactly the same as when Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, hailed her as "living proof that this country is moving in the right direction.'' There is not enough Botox in Santa Monica to keep my face that immobile.

The argument that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee returned to again and again during their opening statements at the confirmation hearing for President Obama's first nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, was that Sotomayor had confessed to being too full of feeling to be objective, and what kind of caca judge cops to that?

(As Feingold pointed out in her defense, all she had really done, in a speech at Berkeley eight years ago, is say that while, yes, we are all human, and all products of our experiences and backgrounds, "I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me require.'')

It's tricky territory, as every talking head alive today has already pointed out, for Republicans hoping to hang on to a few Hispanic votes to be arguing that Sotomayor is just too emotional to sit on the highest court. Yet yes, that's the plan, and they stuck to it on Monday, even as the always entertaining Lindsey Graham of South Carolina both acknowledged political reality and cut to the chase, announcing that "unless you have a total meltdown, you will be confirmed.''

Members of the committee also highlighted what a boy's club both the Senate and the Supreme Court still are with a constant stream of sports analogies: Could she be depended upon to accurately call balls and strikes? What kind of plays would she call if promoted to the coaching staff?

One of the old boys on Sotomayor's own team -- yes, Patrick Leahy, I am talking to you -- came off as a bullying rudenik, cutting off New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's introduction of the nominee without so much as a thank you madam. ("It's an exciting day and I just wasn't aware,'' a flushed Gillibrand said afterwards. "If I'd known it was supposed to be five minutes, it would have been five minutes.'')

The new guy on the committee, Al Franken, with all of five days of Senate tenure, struck a humbler note, and used his allotted time to plead to be taken seriously: "I take this oath very seriously,'' he insisted. "I may not be a lawyer, but neither are the overwhelming majority of Americans.''

The highlight of the day, however, more exciting even than the periodic ejection of anti-abortion protesters to anyone with a thimble-full of the fellow feeling that the Republicans couldn't stop complaining about, was the sight of the nominee's white-haired mother dabbing her eyes and nodding at each recitation of her girl's achievements.

When it was Sotomayor's turn to talk, she was brief and fully responsive to the question of the day: "My career as an advocate ended -- and my career as a judge began -- when I was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. . . . Throughout my 17 years on the bench, I have witnessed the human consequences of my decisions. Those decisions have been made not to serve the interests of any one litigant, but always to serve the larger interest of impartial justice. In the past month, many senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy. It is simple: fidelity to the law. . . . In each case I have heard, I have applied the law to the facts at hand.''

Sotomayor will spend the rest of the week fielding questions -- and maybe one or two tough-hop ground balls -- but the potential meltdown Senator Graham referred to is as unlikely as an '09 World Series between the Nats and the Orioles. And thank goodness she's said she likes baseball.