White House Smacks Gingrich For Calling Sotomayor A Racist

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/27/white-house-admonishes-gi_n_208227.html

Sam Stein
[e-mail] | HuffPost Reporting

White House Smacks Gingrich For Calling Sotomayor A Racist



The White House hit back at Newt Gingrich on Wednesday for a twitter post made by the former House Speaker accusing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor of being a racist.

Early on Wednesday, Gingrich put up a post on twitter rapping Sotomayor for saying that her background as a Hispanic female allowed her to understand cases in a different, better, manner than her white male contemporaries.

"Imagine a judicial nominee said "my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman" new racism is no better than old racism."

Asked at the daily briefing to respond to the tweet, spokesman Robert Gibbs offered a bit of thinly-veiled frustration with Gingrich and warned against the escalation of racially heated rhetoric.

"I think it is probably important for anyone involved in this debate to be exceedingly careful with the way in which they've decided to describe aspects of this impending nomination," said Gibbs. "I think when the people of America and the Senate get a chance to look at more than just the blog of a former lawmaker that they will come to the same conclusion as the president did. ... I feel certain that partisan politics will take a back seat to common sense and open-minded decisions based on a full examination of the record, and I think that that's what every Supreme Court and judicial nominee deserves."

Playing up the racial aspect of Sotomayor's candidacy is a dangerous proposition for the conservative community, with the risk of offending wide swaths of Hispanics omnipresent. To this point, the charges of reverse-racism have been primarily trumpeted by non-elected officials. But as Greg Sargent pointed out first, the director of new media for the Republican National Committee, Todd Herman, re-tweeted Gingrich's post, bringing the line of attack ever closer to the rank-and-file GOP.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Good on 'em! nt

[FSogol]

2. Disgraced former lawmaker, not just a former one. n/t

[AspenRose]

3. Please GOP, overplay your hand, like you always do.

Oh please, please, pretty please! :bounce:

[Cha]

4. Well, Rec'd~ Get Gibbs' reply

to grinch's whining out there.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. Oh so they'll offend Hispanics and women...who are those people anyway?

[babylonsister]

7. I think they have a death wish myself.

Just imagine how they could respond to her nomination. Now imagine what the worst is that they could do. That's what they're going to do.

And I'm okay with that!

[Ocracoker16]

6. Gibbs has a great point about Gingrich being a "former lawmaker"

Gingrich is a jerk who hasn't had an official title in a long time. He was speaker of the House, but that was as far as he got. Now that the GOP is falling apart with no real solid leadership, he has surfaced. He wants to be a leader in the party and he hopes that he might become the GOP nominee in 2012.

Since he is a "has been", he should keep his mouth shut. Who cares what Newt thinks?