Originally Posted by SteveZ

Any time a President nominates anyone for anything, someone will say that the nomination is politically influenced - and usually will be right.

If the President has a pool of several qualified individuals from which to pick a nominee for anything - and all nominees are equally qualified - odds are the political value of each potential selection is part of the equation. So, the political value of picking an individual of Hispanic background, ande female as well, could be expected to be touted.

The process is for the President to provide a single individual as a nominee, not a pool of two or more, and then letting Congress rank-order them via the Congressional interview method.

All that notwithstanding, and knowing that the selection process for Presidential nominees has been this process since Pres. Washington, the real issue should be whether Judge Sotomayor is indeed qualified to be in that select pool of individuals equally qualified for being a SCOTUS associate justice, and can she professionally do the job - yes or no.

No President is going to go to the other-party's leadership and seek advice on whom the other-party prefers - and nor should s/he do so.

Personally, I'm sick and tired of politicians (federal, state, or local) who are more concerned with fighting everything on party lines rather than being concerned with either: 1) the professional credentials of a nominee to do the job at hand; or 2) the law to be enacted (or repealed) will actually improve life within the jurisdiction. C-SPAN is beginning to look like a continuous rerun of "West Side Story."

Judge Sotomayor has already demonstrated in two prior evaluations of being professionally qualified to be a U.S, District Court Judge and a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge. The only question on the table should be whether she is professionally qualified to be employed at the next-higher judicial level. Any Senator who asks her any question on her position on anything other than knowledge of the law, or judicial practice and procedure should be looked at as a party hack and political bigot.

In today's world, every employer, or selection committee, is all too aware that the interview process for any new employee has its restrictions as to what can and can't be asked from any job candidate. It would be refreshing to see Congress practice what it levies on the rest of us to insure employees are picked based on professional qualifications, and that racial, ethnic, gender, appearance, political or any other bias or prejudice is absent in the selection process.