Lindsey Graham: Do You Realize If I Said That, They Would Have My Head?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

BARACK OBAMA

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) gets into the "wise Latina" comment with Judge Sonia Sotomayor. What follows is an imprecise transcript:

Graham: Do you understand, ma'am, how if I said anything like that, and I justified it as saying I was trying to inspire someone, they would have my head?

Sotomayor: I can understand how it could be hurtful, particularly if read in isolation.

Graham: I don't know how you can justify — if I said that because of my experience as a Caucasian male I am a better person to represent the people of South Carolina, and my opponent was a minority, it would make national news, and it should. I am not going to judge you based on that one statement . . . I just hope you appreciate the world we live in, and how you can say something like that, meaning to inspire someone, and still have a chance to get on the Supreme Court. Others could not, if they had said anything remotely like that statement. Does that make sense to you?

Sotomayor: It does.

Graham: Some people deserve a second chance if they misspeak . . . If people come to that conclusion based on this hearing, then already some good has come out of this.

I would note that today's hearings have definitely brought the "wise Latina" comment to great prominence; it's hard to see how it doesn't dominate tomorrow's headlines.

UPDATE: Graham is getting rave reviews on CNN. Jeffrey Toobin: "This was an exquisite cross-examination. This guy really knows what he's doing." Alex Castellanos, on CNN: Graham's questioning was "the most honest, and least political, moment of the hearings."
He said Sotomayor's answers were evasive.

07/14 04:46 PM Share