Politics
Sotomayor’s Confirmation—What Her Victory May Cost the Republicans
Conservatives tried to convince the Senate, and the nation, that an impressive judge with an impeccable record was simply a product of affirmative action. It didn’t work.
By Peggy Simpson for the Women’s Media Center, reprinted with permission.
The confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as the third woman and first Latina to sit on the Supreme Court never was a done-deal.
It might look like it from the 68 to 31 vote of approval in the Senate Thursday.
But there were bumps along the way, potential derailments that were dealt with and some bizarre resurrections by conservatives of Reagan-era complaints that white males were victims of affirmative action policies that benefit women and minorities.
Here’s what helped Sotomayor clinch the job:
- impressive coalitions by liberal advocacy groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, with feminist and reproductive rights groups stifling initial qualms about their uncertainties about her views on abortion;
- unwavering support from Team Obama, especially in the midst of early accusations by conservative activists that she was a racist or worse, when even some supporters were nervous about remarks she made in 2001 about the virtues of being a “wise Latina.” She never apologized or took back those thoughts but did acknowledge a “poor choice” of words;
- most of all, her own steady performance before the cameras in hearings that had been expected to feature fireworks but instead bordered on boring. Boring was good, in this context. Behind the scenes, Sotomayor visited with an unprecedented number of senators and by all accounts was a charmer. She carried that civility and personal touch into the Senate hearings with gestures, smiles and mini-conversations with GOP senators she knew would oppose her.
New Facebook Page Tells Cheney to Shut Up–but Why?
There’s a new Facebook page that just went up yesterday and already has over 54,000 fans. The name of it is “Telling Dick Cheney to Shut the Hell Up”. Probably the people (they refer to “we” but don’t tell us who they are) who started it really wanted to use the f-word, but restrained themselves.
Personally, I hope Cheney keeps talking. Every time he opens his mouth, he digs himself and his party further and further into their already deep and murky hole. As one commenter on the fan page observed ironically, Cheney seems to think, “Maybe if I just keep repeating the same lie, it will suddenly become true.”
Well, that strategy surely worked for most of the long and treacherous (in all senses of the word) Bush II administration. So it’s not crazy of Cheney to think it will continue to work. But fortunately it won’t. The American people have at last awakened.
So let the man keep talking. Because it’ll help us stay awake so that the snarling, angry, power-mad Cheney and his ruthless right-wing ilk won’t be able to once again snag the reins of power.
Have a good Memorial Day Weekend.
Read MoreLegalized Neglect of Children at Risk
Rinku Sen is president of the Applied Research Center and Publisher of ColorLines Magazine. I found this guest post she wrote very compelling, for it is so often the voices of children most in need that are least heard by our policy makers. But there is something we can do about it. Read on…
As our state legislatures struggle with impending budget deficits, American families are going to be presented with a bunch of terrible “choices.” Do we want less healthcare or affordable housing? Fewer teachers or trash collectors? Childcare policy has gotten very little attention, but devoting resources to ensuring the safety and early education of kids in subsidize day care needs to go to the top of our agenda. As we see in this video and in our new report at the Applied Research Center, “Underprotected, Undersupported,” state childcare policy too often constitutes “Legalized Neglect” of the low-income children, as always disproportionately of color, who deserve so much better.
A handful of leading childcare advocates have pointed out the recession’s devastating impact on the childcare industry and parents’ ability to pay for childcare. We need federal and state governments to provide more support to low-income families as we shift “from a culture of greed to a culture of care” in the United States which ranks 18th out of 25 other developed nations on early childhood education according to Save the Children’s 2009 State of the World’s Mothers Report.
But our childcare licensing and inspection systems also need a major overhaul if we’re going to do more than just warehouse kids. In fourteen states, for example, you essentially don’t need a full license to operate a childcare center. Requirements vary, but policies and practices in these states often allow significant exemptions to their childcare standards and regulations – including child-staff ratios and even basic health and safety standards like criminal background checks and regular inspections. In the case of Alabama, deregulation of childcare centers removed the expectation of any inspections at all. While some unlicensed centers that we visited were of excellent quality, concern is growing about the small storefront centers exploiting the state’s “faith-based” exemption to avoid basic standards and inspections while simultaneously benefiting from state subsidies for “caring” for low-income kids. Call yourself a church, and avoid the cost of proper licensing.
Read MoreTo Run the World (Better), Power Up Feminism
In the Spring ’09 edition, On The Issues Magazine writers and artists discuss feminist and progressive values that transcend politics — our Lines In The Sand. I’m pleased to have been asked to contribute this article to the mix.
Were you thinking we were done with elections and could take a few minutes to celebrate a pro-woman administration and a Democratically-controlled Congress that appears ready to embrace pro-choice and pro-equality measures? Sorry, my Sisters. Elections are never over when they are over.
Candidates are already gearing up for 2010 and 2012. It’s critically important that feminists review the lessons of 1992 and its parallels to 2008 so we can avoid repeating mistakes—and more urgently, so we can charge ahead with strategies that advance a bold vision of gender equality and justice.
After all, men have been making America’s political decisions for over 200 years now, and I don’t need to tell you it’s not a pretty picture. Women, especially those not afraid to identify themselves with the F-word, are the change we need. But whether women will be the change we get depends on whether we use the power we have.
For the one constant in politics is that every victory sows the seeds of the next defeat and every defeat sows the seeds of the next victory, unless eternal vigilance is applied. This means using a movement mentality that continually advances bold new ideas and keeps its grassroots watered.
Read MoreHow Do You Grade Obama’s First 100 Days?
Tired of the routine 100 days analyses? Salon asked a wildly diverse compendium of opinionated pontificators, including me, to grade the president’s foreign policy, economic policy, and overall performance. Oh, in 200 words. Check ’em out.
How do you grade him? Please share your thoughts by clicking on comments below Here’s the report card I sent to Salon; they cut my last, and best (IMHO), paragraph:
Read MoreBest of Weeks, Not So Best of Weeks
The best: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama. This photo says, better than a thousand words, the joy of this step forward for gender equality in compensation. That’s Lilly, the blonde in the middle (I won’t identify by her red jacket because it seems Senators Barbara Mikulski and Olympia Snowe and Rep.Eleanor Holmes Norton also got the memo).
Am I alone in noting the contrast between this photo, with its diverse group of people and the photo of old white men surrounding George Bush when he signed the abortion ban bill? Quite a sea change. Breathe out now. Guess which one of the signings I was invited to, and which one not.
But on to the not so best, for some happenings this past week were more like Washington as usual:
Read MoreAretha’s Hat
Possibly my favorite statement from the inauguration. It’s all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T, honey.
Heartfeldt Talks with PunditMom on Blogtalk Radio
I had the pleasure of talking today with political blogger PunditMom, aka Joanne Conrath Bamberger, on her BlogTalk Radio program. We covered the waterfront from Obama’s policies on reproductive rights, rescinding the global gag rule (hooray!), universal healthcare, NY Gov. Patterson’s appointment of Rep. Kisten Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton’s seat, and more. You can listen to the podcast of the show above. And be sure and checkout PunditMom–it’s one of my faves.
Read MoreTurnabout After Prop 8 Offers Delicious Irony
While I’m riveted like rest of the nation and indeed the world, watching the events leading up to Barack Obama’s inauguration tomorrow, a news item buried deep in the national news section of the New York Times today nearly caused me to fall, laughing wildly, off the treadmill where I was reading it.
Yes, multitasking three things at once always makes me feel like I am using my time wisely. But I digress.
The article, “Marriage Ban Donors Feel Exposed by list”, reports a lawsuit filed by supporters of California’s Proposition 8, passed last November, that made same sex marriage illegal by overturning the State Supreme Court’s May, 2008, ruling that same sex marriages are legal under the California constitution.
Frank Schubert, the campaign manager for Protect Marriage, the leading group behind the proposition, alleges that gay rights groups are checking out the names and addresses of donors to the Prop 8 campaign. “And giving these people a map to your home or office leaves supporters of Proposition 8 feeling especially vulnerable. Really, it is chilling,” Schubert said. So they’ve filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court seeking to prevent release of the names of donors who contributed late in the campaign and have not yet been revealed in campaign filings.
Well my, my. I do empathize even if I don’t sympathize, given that the same groups that supported Prop 8 also oppose reproductive rights for women. For the 30 years I was with Planned Parenthood, they dogged me personally, stalking, picketing me at home, and often sending threatening notes. Their harrassment of doctors who provide abortion services escalated over the years to violence; as a result 87% of U.S. counties have no abortion provider.
Chilling indeed.
Read MoreAn Irresistible Explanation of 2008 as We Welcome 2009
I don’t know who this Uncle Jay guy is, but he summed up 2008 rather well. Enjoy. And have a Heartfeldt Happy New Year!
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