Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

As a person who finished first in her class at Princeton, had an exceptional academic record and was on Law Review at Yale Law School, followed by a notable career as a big city prosecutor, private practice, and then several increasingly responsible appointments to the bench by Presidents of different political persuasion, I'd have to say that Judge Sotomayor is pretty high up the steps on the competence scale.

Are there others that are equally smart and experienced? Probably so. So what? Judge Sotomayor was the one nominated by the President--not any of the others. The Senate's job is to determine whether she meets the Constitutional requirements to sit on SCOTUS. So far, there have been criticisms of how her ethnicity and gender might effect her decision-making. But no one that I've read so far has demonstrated how her background has had any influence on her judicial decisions whatsoever.

The Constitutionally required process for the nomination and confirmation of a SCOTUS justice is well established. What the process is not is a candidate search to be conducted by the Senate. That's the responsibility of the President. The President did his job, so at this point the Senate's job is to consent to the nomination--nothing more.

As I've said before, all this racism conversation is little more than political posturing. Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed in a landslide vote--because she more than meets the required qualifications. Period.