Conservatidiot of the Day: Newt Gingrich

The right's bastardization of Sonia Sotomayor's 2001 speech continues today, this time as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls for Sotomayor to withdraw her nomination because she's "racist." Newt Gingrich, who deserves some credit for slowly learning how to use Twitter, tweeted the following today: "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," referring to Sotomayor's claim that "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

It is apparent that the right is going to play the racism card well into this confirmation process. Nevermind, of course, that Sotomayor's claims are valid. A stuffy old white man from Georgia who has the liberty to cheat on his second wife while persecuting the President of the United States for cheating on his first wife doesn't really know what it is like to be a Latina woman, nor does he have the ability to make the proper decisions affecting the lives of Latina women. But Gingrich and many other conservatives, who like to distract people from their own racism by claiming that anything said by a minority against a white man is racist, are not actually looking at the context of Sotomayor's remarks, and are instead looking for any straw man argument they can find to drag her through the mud.

Gingrich also had this to say in a later Tweet: "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw." I actually agree with him. If a Latina said, oh, "the Latina race is superior to the white race," and was a member of an anti-white group, and made judicial decisions which discriminated against white men, then she should have to step down considering she brings a dangerous bias to the bench. But, considering Sotomayor never said such a thing, and has rendered decisions in favor of the rights of all races, I don't see where this is a valid argument.

The right will no doubt continue this argument. Whenever a minority points out the richness of minority experiences, or dares to question the horrific actions of white Americans against minorities in our long sordid history, the conservatidiots on the right deflect their own racist leanings by screaming "racism!" at other minorities. What's sad is that some people in this country will undoubtedly listen to Gingrich, much as some do Rush Limbaugh, and will continue to bastardize Sotomayor into a racist demon nominated by an equally racist Super Terrorist who was only elected because racist minorities voted in record numbers in 2008. Oh well-- Thankfully, we have a Senate comprised of at least 55 intelligent people who refuse to cater to such stupid wedge tactics.