I’ve been home sick for the last three days and I’ve spent much of that time with tissue stuffed up my left nostril and my browser pointed to C-Span.org, where they are live-streaming the boring, painful, and occasionally entertaining Sotomayor hearings. Between sneezing, wishing boils on Jeff Sessions, and a pox on Lindsay Graham, I’ve been keeping up with a few entertaining Twitter feeds (including friends of the blog Adam Serwer and Dr. Bitch) and instant messaging my rage to Jamelle, UniverseExpanding, and G.D.
Today, though, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-WTF?) took the cake. As Adam tweeted earlier: “Dammit Coburn, Sotomayor is not your law professor.” Coburn asked question after question, seemingly trying to get at Sotomayor’s personal opinion on abortion and gun rights. She thwarted him, explaining repeatedly, exactly what a justice is supposed to do. (Hint: it’s not “make decisions based on how I feel about it.”)
Sotomayor has superhuman patience, and well knows what she’s talking about. There’s also been no hint of that spicy Latina temper we’ve heard so much about, despite the frustrating, condescending lines of questioning coming from the GOP senators. And even when she’s getting softballs from the Dems, she still answers in a thoughtful, measured way — I actually see many similarities between her and Obama.
Right now, we’re on a break and Jeff Sessions is complaining that Sotomayor’s answers aren’t “clear.” I couldn’t disagree more. She is perhaps being opaque about her personal views, but she’s being clear about her decisions and how she has come by them.
I have a few favorite moments from the last few days, and few where I would love nothing more than to hurl a shoe at my laptop. What about you?