Specter Defends Sotomayor

Sen. Arlen Specter surprised me with his passionate defense of Sonia Sotomayor. Conservatives have unsuccessfully attempted to label Sotomayor a racist. Specter told Republicans they were making "a mountain out of a molehill."

"There has been a lot of talk about a 'wise Latina woman' and I think this proceeding has tended to make a mountain out of a molehill," Specter said. "We have had a consistent line of people who are nominees who make references to their own backgrounds. We all have our perspective. Justice O'Connor talked about her life experiences. Justice Alito talked about his family suffering from ethnic slurs. Justice Thomas...talked about putting himself in the shoes of other people. And Justice Scalia talked about being in a racial minority. The expectation would be that a woman would want to say something to assert her competence in a country, which denied the women the right to vote for decades, where the glass ceiling limited people, where there is still disparagement of people on ethnic background. So I can see how someone would take pride in being a Latina woman and assert herself."

In related news: Pat Buchanan offers Republicans horrible advise. The Republican Party toattack Sotomayor because Sarah Palin was not given the respect Buchanan felt she deserved. Buchanan urges the GOP to ignore the Hispanic vote and attempt to attain more white voters.

Had McCain been willing to drape Jeremiah Wright around the neck of Barack Obama, as Lee Atwater draped Willie Horton around the neck of Michael Dukakis, the mainstream media might have howled.

And McCain might be president.

Buchanan ignores the negative attacks McCain used hurt his candidacy.

But the clear perception that the Arizona senator has run a more negative campaign than Obama may hurt the Republican presidential nominee's chances of a comeback as the end of the race draws near.

"In previous elections, both candidates have been viewed as attacking the other unfairly, so the penalty for doing so has tended to cancel out in past years," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "But this year McCain faces that problem all by himself, so any blowback affects only him while Obama seems above the fray."

The Census points to Hispanics being the fastest growing ethnic groups. Hispanic voters shifted toward Democrats in 2006 and 2008. Republicans will continue to have minority status if they continue to bash Hispanics.