Joan Walsh: It's not even coded bigotry anymore

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/news/elena_kagan/index.html?story=/opinion/walsh/politics/2010/06/28/not_even_coded_bigotry_anymore

It's not even coded bigotry anymore
The GOP hits Elena Kagan for admiring Thurgood Marshall and hailing from "Manhattan's Upper West Side"
By Joan Walsh


I'm not entirely sold on Solicitor General Elena Kagan as our newest Supreme Court Justice. Ironically, one of my reservations has to do with her approach to leveling racial discrimination – specifically her reported role in scuttling a Clinton administration plan to do away with sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine (which has meant heavier punishment for African Americans than whites for dealing or using the same drug.)

That said, Republicans on the Senate Judicial Committee are trying to make the case she's outside the mainstream of American jurisprudence, by attacking her clerking for (and admiring) legal giant Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice, while singling her out as a denizen of "Manhattan's Upper West Side" – you know, the neighborhood known for Zabar's and bagels and, well, Jews.

Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of Alabama, who wasn't crazy about Sonia Sotomayor, you'll recall, denounced Kagan having "associated herself with well-known activist judges who have used their power to redefine the meaning of our constitution and have the result of advancing that judge's preferred social policies," and he cited Marshall, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund leader who argued Brown vs. Board of Education. According to Talking Points Memo, Republicans mentioned Marshall an astonishing 35 times in the hearing (compared with 14 mentions of President Obama) with his son, Thurgood Marshall Jr., sitting in the audience.

Sen. Jon Kyl played the culture war card:

“Not only is Ms. Kagan’s background unusual for a Supreme Court nominee, it is not clear how it demonstrates that she has, in the President’s words, ‘a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people.’ One recent article noted that ‘{Ms.} Kagan’s experience draws from a world whose signposts are distant from most Americans: Manhattan’s upper West side, Princeton University, Harvard Law School and the upper reaches of the Democratic legal establishment.’"

snip//

So there you have it. Unable to find any personal statements by Kagan they can use to prove she's beyond the pale, so to speak – no "wise Latina" moments on her transcripts – they deride her for coming from the Upper West Side, and admiring one of the heroes of American justice, who happens to be black.

Stay tuned for more not-so-coded bigotry from the GOP.

[abq e streeter]

1. Typical, and sickening

and I don't think it's really been particularly coded for a long time.

[Enthusiast]

2. They have systematically desensitized

the population to bigotry, torture, corruption and arrogance.

[dmr]

3. It is getting pretty blatant isn't it?

As each week passes - from Palin's encouragement during the 2008 campaign, to the Teabagging of town-hall meetings to Obama at the SOTU to the crowds outside during the HCR vote - and on and on and on and on ...

Nasty, vile and evil while proclaiming the high ground, patriotism and God.

[Enthusiast]

7. The parallels to

the behavior of the Brown Shirts couldn't be more clear.

[KharmaTrain]

4. The Real Enemy: Intelligence.

Yep...the rushpublicans are left to the bitter core...bigotry and hatred. As a bright-eyed kid I worked for Abner Mikva and came to know and admire the man. Beaureguard couldn't come close to the intellect of this man who was a great Congressman and became an even greater Federal Judge.

There's a badge of honor among wingnuts these days to put down anyone who is educated. I connect this with their faux morality. They hate smart people cause they always did better in school and in the work world, just like the "cool" people were the ones who always had the boy or girlfriend while they had their left hand. Since they can't or don't...then no one else can or should.

This is more fodder for the hate mills...grandstanding for the unhinged.

:hi:

[Robert DAH Bruce]

5. Am I the only guy here who thinks Joan is kinda hot?

Smart and sexy: YEAESSS!

[PCIntern]

6. No, you're not the only one...

}(

[MBS]

8. the headline says it all

On Hardball last night, Chris Matthews was shaking his head, seemingly amazed that a senator could use admiration of Thurgood Marshall as a NEGATIVE attribute. . Joan Walsh succinctly explains the reason.

Depressing.
But shows how and why we need to continue to fight.

[Angry Dragon]

9. "of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people"

It amazes me that these people talk and do not even hear the words that spew out of their mouths.
Talk about passing laws that they do not live under and expect people to praise them for the
fine job they do.
These people are no better than gutter scum, lower than a snake's belly, they are
ignorant and arrogant asses. Most never having worked an honest day in their pitiful lives.

[Scurrilous]

10. K & R

:thumbsup:

[RagAss]

11. "It's a Hard Rain Gonna Fall"

[robcon]

12. I think the bigotry is in your mind.

n/t