GOP Disappoints LeVar Burton
Submitted by Bradley L. Cromes on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 3:47pm.
"But you don't have to take my word for it..."
One of the news angles I promised Anthony I'd cover as a way to grab some of this prime blog real estate is the United States Supreme Court. I'd been worried all day that the GOP wouldn't provide me with an adequate foil before the day was out...
...and then came this. The Senate GOP, led by Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, is upset this afternoon because the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) chose to drop around 350 pages of documents today cataloging the roughly 12 years Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor spent on that organization's Board, 10 days before the scheduled start of her confirmation hearings.
If I'm reading The Drudge Report's typically indignant link correctly, the GOPers are upset in part because they feel 10 days isn't sufficient time to read 350 pages. They're so miffed, they're threatening to delay Sotomayor's confirmation hearings until they've had a chance to wade through the documents.
I know Republicans tend to not be huge fans of funding PBS, but it's possible a little Reading Rainbow could do them some good. Maybe reports from PRLDEF meetings aren't pages turners on the level of the Harry Potter series, but c'mon...this isn't THAT much to read, is it?
PRLDEF has been a frequent target of the right for their opposition to failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and ties to ACORN. That said, anyone who takes more than a passing look (like, say, 350 pages or so) can easily tell this is not the group of "radicals" the right wants you to believe they are. What you're seeing here is more sad posturing from a party looking for something, anything, to placate its shell-shocked base.
Even with this late development, Sotomayor passes 70-30 without breaking a sweat.
* * *
Don't believe me about PRLDEF? See for yourself at http://www.prldef.org, and in LeVar's famous closing words, “I’ll see ya next time!”
That's like 35 pages a day!
You can't expect them to each read 35 pages a day! Of course, they could divide it up among the members like a book club or something, but still, dammit, they can't read 35 pages a day.... Oh, wait, they have staff that read it for them? Dammit, Congressing is hard!
That's what I love about these explanations for the delay. You know that the MEMBERS of these committees aren't even reviewing these documents ever. It's all their staff.