Obama aide: Criticism of Sotomayor 'kind of a sideshow'

[ruggerson]

Good idea. Marginalize the suckers.

(CNN) –- A senior adviser to President Obama said Sunday that criticism of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comment was a diversion that distracted attention away from her lengthy judicial record.

“I think this is kind of a sideshow,” Obama adviser David Axelrod said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

“The point she was making is that we’re all the sum total of our experiences and you bring those experiences with you to the bench,” Axelrod also said in the interview. “It’s the same point that Justice Ginsburg and Justice Alito have made and I think that the debate is kind of a diversion from her 17-year record as judge.”

When attention is focused on Judge Sotomayor’s record Axelrod, one of the president’s closest advisers, said that Obama’s Supreme Court pick showed herself to be a fair, even-handed jurist.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/07/obama-aide-criticism-of-sotomayor-comment-kind-of-a-sideshow/