Grassley Says Colleagues ‘Beating a Dead Horse to Death’ on Sotomayor ‘Wise Latina’ Comments
EmailThis week's ABC News Shuffle podcast interview is with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who took a few minutes from the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to talk to us.
You can listen to the podcast on iTunes or HERE. The podcast is produced by Huma Khan.
Asked why he didn't raise Sotomayor's "wise Latina woman" when he questioned the judge Tuesday, Grassley said, "I didn’t ask about it because so many other people asked about it and how many times can you beat a dead horse to death."
That said, Grassley offered that "we need to get to what's basic about that statement. I don’t think that statement would’ve been highlighted as much if the president hadn't said during the campaign and with her nomination that he wanted to put somebody on the court that had empathy. Well, that word empathy has created her more problems than she needs. … That really highlighted the problems. Is she going to be basing a decision based on the law or the facts as they relate to that law and potentially legislate from the bench or is she going to look at it within the four corners of the law and just interpret law?"
He said, "what I'd like to have her say one time is, 'It was just one great big mistake, it was wrong.'"
Grassley, the senior non-lawyer behind that table, has been on the Judiciary Committee for 28 years and says as someone without a JD, he brings "common sense" to the committee.
In Tuesday's hearing, he focused on the separation of powers — having famously clashed with Justice Antonin Scalia during his confirmation hearing over how much deference the Supreme Court should give to Congress. Was he satisfied with Sotomayor's response?
"Much more so than in Scalia’s case where he told us and the whole committee, and he even told me privately, that he’s not going to have much reliance upon anything than the text of the law — not committee reports, not debates on the floor of the Senate," Grassley said. "And I think Sotomayor would, even though she didn’t satisfy me totally, she satisfied me more than Scalia would. Because she said, obviously when the text of the law might not be very clear, you do have to go to other sources and she indicated willingness to use those other sources although she says, I know about debate in the Congress and committee reports written maybe more by staff people more than by the members themselves, that surely can’t be definitive."
Grassley said he'd know within 48 hours whether he'd be able to support the Senate version of health care reform, which we also talked about, as well as his enthusiasm for twitter.
Check it out HERE.
– jpt
Sen. DeMint: GOP Race Could Go Until Convention 
Obama Avoids Questions on Contraception Rule
The GOP is playing this very stupidly.
The “see we like Hispanics” constant references to Miguel Estrada are on the verge of being embarrassing.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 15, 2009, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
I would ask Sotomayor if she has learned anything from the number of times her decisions have been overturned by the high court…
Posted by: PotatoSalad | July 15, 2009, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
“I would ask Sotomayor if she has learned anything from the number of times her decisions have been overturned by the high court.”
Wow a whole 3 times.
When the overturn rate for cases accepted has been nearly 70% the last few years.
My favorite was her response to Ricci when she called out the majority opinion for creating a new standard.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 15, 2009, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
“So, now she has been overturned 4 of 6 times (that’s 67%)”
The SC has taken on just 6 of here 200+ decision meaning they let those decisions stand.
Love Sessions so far, could not have asked for a better inquisitor to make Sotomayor a sympathetic character.
At this rate The GOP may push Hispanic support of Democrats into the 75% to 80% range.
“The Washington Times says,”
Would that be the “news” (ROFLMAO) paper that offered Mark Sanford friendly ground?
Posted by: Ryan C | July 15, 2009, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
The English language rather than Sotomayor is being tortured in this hearing. So many people just carnt spel.
Posted by: John | July 15, 2009, 2:02 pm 2:02 pm
Jake,
When are you going to address the emails you sent the Governor of South Carolina characterizing the media coverage of his then unknown affair as “slimy”?
And while you are at it, why don’t you admit you suck up to elites hoping they throw you a bone?
Real journalists keep it professional.
Posted by: dave thomas | July 15, 2009, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
I heart Charles Grassley lately. He’s right. And he’s raising excellent questions about the inspector generals being fired or pushed out. With all that, I can ignore the fascination with Twitter– there’s a lot of that going around. *G*
Posted by: moderate | July 15, 2009, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
Jake-The question to ask is. Ms. Sotomayor do you believe in God?
Posted by: afloatinasea | July 15, 2009, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
I thought that beating dead horses was in the official job description of Senators.
Posted by: JOHN BOREN | July 15, 2009, 3:05 pm 3:05 pm
Actually, the Senators believe that beating dead horses is in their job description.
Posted by: hang | July 15, 2009, 3:15 pm 3:15 pm
References to Miguel Estrada became embarrassing yesterday.
Posted by: hang | July 15, 2009, 3:16 pm 3:16 pm
I agree with previous commenter, re:your e-mails to SC governor’s office during his absence. I’m having trouble trusting your journalistic judgment (that WAS a big story after all, and NBC WAS asking the right questions). Hard to believe you’ll fess up to unprofessional conduct or a momentary lapse into the “slime” yourself, but there’s always hope. I bet you’ll be defensive…
Posted by: TAA | July 15, 2009, 3:20 pm 3:20 pm
Does Obama ever work? Have you ever seen him in the Oval Office sitting at the desk with a stack of papers in front of him?
NOPE.
Posted by: karen | July 15, 2009, 3:23 pm 3:23 pm
Well fair is fair, and I just spotted this e-mail message at Politico, which they attribute to you:
“Busted. In retrospect, the story I was referring to wasn’t slimy enough — at that moment the only ones who knew of the governor’s affair were Sanford, his wife, his mistress, and the State newspaper. But I shouldn’t have said that, and I’ll try to leave the media criticism to others from now on.”
Why don’t you address it here on your own site? Thank you for not insulting our intelligence with a blind or misleading defense of yourself. Trust restored, somewhat.
Posted by: TAA | July 15, 2009, 3:28 pm 3:28 pm
The high number of times she has been turned over by the Supreme court has been mentioned in articles and by comments on here…Of the case the SC reheard that were decided by Sotomayor she has been reversed 60% of the time. However the SC rate of reversal is 70-75%. And she has hundreds of decisions not reviewed by the SC. So ummm…yeah she is actually better than most judges. The SC has a high rate of reversal for ANY case it hear, as they choose which cases they want to hear. They don’t pick black and white cases, they pick the tough gray area cases that they feel may have been decided incorrectly.
Posted by: Ordermonger | July 15, 2009, 3:35 pm 3:35 pm
Yes, stop beating the horse – it’s dead already! Are there any real issues with her professional history? If not, then confirm her and move ON.
Posted by: Nichole | July 15, 2009, 3:36 pm 3:36 pm
Anyone see the moment where Sessions was saying that another Judge, I think Cedarbaum or something like that, would probably disagree with some of what Sotomayor has said…only to have that very same Judge be a close personal friend of Sotomayor and be in attendance in support of her confirmation? That was awesome.
Posted by: Ordermonger | July 15, 2009, 3:36 pm 3:36 pm
Everyone in the world uses every influence in their history to make decisions. Every government official, police,military person, teacher, trainer, parent ect. And every judge will and does the same.
Posted by: mpb | July 15, 2009, 4:15 pm 4:15 pm
Yeah, they are beating it to death, I am guessing to impress their constituents, because they already know she is going to be confirmed. I think one senator yesterday even said so outright.
Posted by: iamwomaninMI | July 15, 2009, 5:08 pm 5:08 pm
To Karen who wrote “Does Obama ever work. . .” Uh, as opposed to Bush? How long in office before he took his first of 17 vacations to either Camp David or his ranch in Crawford, Texas? I believe Bush holds the record for the president who took the most vacations. . . Obama is working, he just makes it look easy. Bush left all his work up to Cheney.
Posted by: TexMex4Obama | July 15, 2009, 5:45 pm 5:45 pm
Just a hypothetical…
If President Obama is eventually found not eligible for his office, will his Supreme Court nominees continue to serve or will they have to step down?
Posted by: Terry | July 15, 2009, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
There is a lot of hope for Ms. Soto-Mayer. So many appointees of conservative Presidents have turned out to be liberal on the Court.
Ms Soto-Mayer has been back-pedaling so fast from her previous statements there is reason to hope she will be the first appointee by a liberal to turn out to be a conservative on the court.
Also, she is Catholic and may well hold a good position on the sanctity of life.
Finally, Latina women do have a tradition of deferring to strong men, and it is clear that Mr. Roberts, Mr. Scalia have firm positions and are adept at defending them.
Her new crowd will be the Justices of the Supreme Court. She will not want to lose face with them by going back on her confirmation renunciations of her previous positions.
This inevitable appointment may not turn out to be so bad after all.
Posted by: Terry | July 15, 2009, 7:51 pm 7:51 pm
“If President Obama is eventually found not eligible for his office, will his Supreme Court nominees continue to serve or will they have to step down?”
Huffing the nitrous with Orly again?
Posted by: Ryan C | July 15, 2009, 7:54 pm 7:54 pm
“wise Latina” would usually reach better conclusion rather then a white man.” Sonia Sotomayor said in the statements of the judge.
Obama should consider that her position is fitted “Wise Latina Activist” rather then being “a judge in Supreme Court”.
Posted by: Bryne | July 15, 2009, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
Hi Ryan,
You can follow the current plan of the Obama administration and ridicule anyone asking the question. Or, you can be your own man and do a little research yourself. Regardless of how you eventually decide, you should do so after due consideration. As a simple exercise in mental agility, try considering the the facts from non-partisan position.
Posted by: Terry | July 15, 2009, 9:50 pm 9:50 pm
Terry . ..
Just a hypothetical, Richard Cheney is discovered to be from the planet Zoron and is also discovered to have broken laws under the Constitution of the United States.
Will he be rewarded with another plum position at Halliburton?
Posted by: danita | July 15, 2009, 10:41 pm 10:41 pm
Hi Danita,
Any idea why Mr. Obama has not directed all contracts with Halliburton be terminated for the convenience of the Government. It’s true, every contract the Government contains such a termination clause. But instead, the Obama Administration is renewing the contracts with Halliburton. I wonder why that could be, since they are so evil and so closely linked with Mr. Chaney (in your mind)?
Posted by: Terry | July 15, 2009, 10:59 pm 10:59 pm
Terry . . .
What has any of that got to do with Richard Cheney being born on the planet Zoron and breaking the laws under the Constitution?
Will he get a plum position at Halliburton again?
Or will he be facing the law courts?
Posted by: danita | July 15, 2009, 11:09 pm 11:09 pm
curious that those who were such fervent backers of soon to be ex Gov. Palin to be Vice President, and then realized what a fraud and moron she actually was…
are throwing a hissy fit about a judge with a exemplary record over 17 years in the judicial system…
Posted by: Oh Yeah | July 16, 2009, 12:41 am 12:41 am
I remember the Dims beating a dead horse when Justice Thomas was being grilled for his job. The news media sided with the Dims (surprise) and tried to lynch him in the press. There was not nearly as much talk about his skin color as the news media did not want the conservatives to get credit for nominating a person of color.
Posted by: Chuck | July 16, 2009, 7:27 am 7:27 am
Why didn’t he ask her? Because he’s a spineless liberal and doesn’t care she’s a racist as long as she is a dumucrat. But then again, I’m just a white male, not a wise brown female.
Posted by: Mike | July 16, 2009, 7:58 am 7:58 am
waste of time when anything concerns ODUMA HE IS COMPLETE IDIOT > Heil ODUMA
Posted by: Joeray | July 16, 2009, 10:16 am 10:16 am
Thank God someone on that floor has good sense. I’m sick of hearing that same question myself.
Posted by: Ron | July 16, 2009, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
Beat that dead horse again and again,it aien’t gonna hurt
Posted by: charlie | July 16, 2009, 12:48 pm 12:48 pm
“Or, you can be your own man and do a little research yourself. Regardless of how you eventually decide, you should do so after due consideration.”
Here are the facts.
Obama posted his birth certificate on line for all to see.
It was also reviewed by two fact checking organizations.
The certificate shows he was born in Hawaii which makes him a natural born citizen.
The birther movement is currently being led by a Dentist/Correspondence school attorney who has actually been sued by another birther attorney for defamation.
This week, she led an idiot freeper to lose his job.
By all means, send her every dime you have.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 16, 2009, 2:16 pm 2:16 pm
“I remember the Dims beating a dead horse when Justice Thomas was being grilled for his job.”
Considering what a moron he has shown himself to be perhaps they should have rejected him.
“There was not nearly as much talk about his skin color as the news media did not want the conservatives to get credit for nominating a person of color.”
Clarence Thomas is a perfect example of what conservatives think affirmative action is.
He barely rated qualified but he showed himself to be a good lapdog for Scalia so he got the job.
See Thomas’s skin color trumped all when he was nominated.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 16, 2009, 2:19 pm 2:19 pm
I notice all these Republican senators were dead silent when Alito said he would draw from his experience as the son of Italian immigrants to guide his decisions. Is that because he’s a white man talking about his white racial/ethnic influences?
Posted by: windrider | July 17, 2009, 5:25 pm 5:25 pm
The republicans voting against it will pay politically when they go for re-election. Hispanics are not going to vote for someone that tried to stop the first hispanic supreme nominee. I guarantee their democratic counterpart will make that point again and again during relection time. GOP is desperate for the hispanic vote and obviously the repercussions were not going through their collective shortminded brains.
Posted by: Dr Frank Rizzo | August 5, 2009, 6:06 pm 6:06 pm