Order in the Court

Barack Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has quickly been acknowledged, by all segments of the political spectrum, as sheer political brilliance. When she is confirmed (and she will be overwhelmingly), it will mark only the third time in American history that a woman holds such a position, and will be the first such occasion for a Hispanic.

Republicans don't dare put up too much of a fight against the nominee. While their national "leaders" would love to see that happen, these Senators have to go home and face their electorates at some point or other. With the odd exception here and there, like Jon Kyl of Arizona, the process should be rather meek.

What opposition has been raised centers not on the usual abortion litmus test but on the idea that Sotomayor would be more of a policy-maker than a jurist. Conservatives also claim to dislike the entire "identity politics" factor in this nomination process - not that such was a concern when Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to the bench.

Another soft gripe will be that Sotomayor is not a "strict constructionist". That might hold water had ultra-right-winger Antonin Scalia not made that famous speech in which he actually compared the Constitution to "Plasticman", saying that the document does indeed "morph" before his very eyes.

They'll also despise her, even as her confirmation sails through the Senate, for not being a corporate robot like the two Justices installed by George W. Bush and the GOP, John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Her less-than-priveleged upbringing will add a slice of common sensibility that has been absent for far too long in our highest court.

Other than all of that, it's not much of a story, and that is the beauty of Obama. He has just taken the most daunting task that any president faces in domestic politics - the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice - and reduced it to about the same degree of difficulty as baking cookies.

He is as formidable a political figure as we have ever known. Thank God he's on the side of the American people, unlike those conservatives who still think they have a place at the ideological table, a concept that grows more laughable with each passing week.

pH 5.28.o9