Is anyone else dreading the drama of the new Supreme Court confirmation hearings? There is the Ring Cycle-length theater of trying to trap the nominee into stating how he or she would rule on sensitive issues that might come before the court. More annoying are the senators who play forensics investigator, sifting through the nominee’s entire past for any evidence that he or she had a random thought or engaged in a trivial behavior the opposing party then tries to use to prove unfitness. Both sides do it. So we get the endless hectoring of Sonia Sotomayor by Republicans for her “wise Latina woman”comment and the ridiculous painting by Democrats of Samuel Alito as a racist. Therefore, potential nominees, make sure you never wrote on a high-school civics exam that socialism can sometimes provide benefits to citizens.
