The OP is a long winded attempt to grave dance on Orrin Hatch, but actually just exposes how Dems attempt to manipulate minorities.
UTUSN (63,352 posts)
A (of many) defining vignette of Orrin "Shirley TEMPLE pout" HATCH: "Mee-gwell" Estrada
Last edited Sun Apr 24, 2022, 01:07 PM - Edit history (3)
Despite his 42 years of wingnut service, he was too "moderate", Deep State, or even "Left" for today's wingnuts, Drumpf Deplorables, and troglodytes. Among the many flip-flops that marked him, hah! notice how he was the only senior Repuke to miss Drumpf's inauguration - *not* from principle - but under the PENCE-like cover of being Drumpf's choice as "designated survivor" - the way PENCE only did some "heroic" resistance when he knew he had a rock solid cover (the Constitution).
So there's no mention of Orrin's being the face shepherding Miguel ESTRADA's nomination to a Court of Appeals. This was from Poppy BUSH's playbook with Clarence THOMAS - nominating a Minority member, from a supposedly Dem constituent group, the trap being making it that bit harder for Dems to use attacks as a tool, attack on a Minority member. There are turncoats in any group. There are Right Wings in any country of whatever ethnicity. So the answer to the Poppy BUSH Gambit of nominating Minority members is for Dems not to be distracted by the ethnic/racial heritage of the nominee and JUST FOCUS on that jerk's self-proclaimed WINGNUTTINESS.
So back then the Dems were still flummoxed off balance by being faced by another nominee who was a Minority member. And there was Orrin facing the press, making Dem opposition as all about ethnicity, a bit of lauding ESTRADA's overcoming hardships to get where he was, but mostly attacking Dems with aspersions of racism, all with the pretense of being INNOCENT and pseudo-appalled at the mystery of how Dems could claim to be champions of Minorities and then oppose a (any) Minority member.
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So, in this DUmmy's mind, Hispanics are "Minority member(s), from a supposedly Dem constituent group" and only Dems are allowed to even consider their placement in the Federal Courts. When Republicans nominate a minority it's only because it's a "trap being making it that bit harder for Dems to use attacks as a tool". And their opinion of any Republican minority nominee is that "There are turncoats in any group". Also, a Republican minority leaves Dems "flummoxed [and] off balance". So, he pretty clearly lays out that minorities are Dem property and any minority that becomes a Republican is a traitor to their race.
As to the DUmmy's claim that Hatch was "pseudo-appalled at the mystery of how Dems could claim to be champions of Minorities and then oppose a (any) Minority member" a little history on Estrada's nomination is in order. In the OP, he included Estrada's wiki page, but apparently didn't actually read it.
Estrada was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. After his parents divorced, he immigrated to the United States to join his mother when he was 17, arriving with a limited command of English.
He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1983. He received a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, in 1986 from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Following law school, Estrada served as a law clerk, first for Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court during Kennedy's first year on the Court in 1988. One of Estrada's fellow clerks that year was Peter Keisler, another conservative nominee to the D.C. Circuit whose nomination lapsed during the 110th Congress without a Senate vote cast on whether to confirm.
From 1990 until 1992, Estrada served as Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York. In 1992, he joined the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant to the Solicitor General for the George H. W. Bush Administration where he served with now Chief Justice John G. Roberts. In those capacities, Estrada represented the government in numerous jury trials and in many appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, he practiced law in New York with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
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George W. Bush nominated Estrada to a position on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on May 9, 2001. He received a unanimous "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association.
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Leaked internal memos to Democratic Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin mention liberal interest groups' desire to keep Estrada off the court because of his potential to be a future Supreme Court nominee, and because his Latino roots might make his nomination difficult to oppose. A spokesman for Durbin said that "no one intended racist remarks against Estrada" and that the memo only meant to highlight that Estrada was "politically dangerous" because Democrats knew he would be an "attractive candidate" that would be difficult to contest since he didn't have any record.
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Numerous judicial nominees prior to Estrada had been kept off the courts, when the Senate refused to let the nomination out of committee for a floor vote. A filibuster had been used in 1968 to extend debate regarding the elevation of Associate Justice Abe Fortas to Chief Justice of the United States, but the Estrada filibuster was different in multiple ways. Estrada's was the first filibuster ever to be successfully used against a judicial nominee who had clear support of the majority in the Senate. Estrada's was the first filibuster of any court of appeals nominee. It was also the first filibuster that prevented a judicial nominee from joining a court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Estrada So, immigrant who came from poverty, excelled in college, served in private practice and then became a senior member of the DOJ, considered well-qualified by the ABA. Not a whole lot to attack there, outside of political differences. So, according to Dems own memos, they opposed Estrada primarily because he was a minority that showed a lot of promise, but wasn't on the Dem plantation. And because of his clear support in the Senate they had to rely on procedural games in order to block him. So, no racism there. He just wasn't the right type of Hispanic. And whenever a Democrat complains about Republicans abusing the filibuster, remind them how the filibuster was weaponized in order to keep a minority off the Federal Court of Appeals.
Only three responses to the OP (2 by UTUSN) including this bizarre view of how Republicans view race:
UTUSN (63,355 posts)
3. Orrin's cheap shot at Dems over opposing Mee-guell meant that support or opposition
should be based on: Race/ethnicity. The very definition of racism.
I seem to recall that anyone disagreeing with Obama was called racist, with no consideration of the arguments being put forth. The only discussion required was "he's black, so you must be racist". Even blacks were call racist for disagreeing with Obama's policies. Then, strangely, if you didn't like Clinton, that also made you racist. I never figured that one out. But, Biden choosing a VP and Supreme Court justice only because of their skin color and gender. That is neither sexist, nor racist, in DUmmyLand. Their logic defies any attempt at comprehension.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216624284
