Andrea Mitchell gets into it with Orrin Hatch over his vote for Sonia Sotomayor in 1998
By John Amato Wednesday May 27, 2009 8:00am
With the announcement of Sonia Sotomayor as the new candidate for the Supreme Court, I figured Andrea Mitchell would have on Orrin Hatch to get his opinion. What's interesting is that she jumped him when he started to backpedal on his support for her, because he did vote for her confirmation back in 1998 under Bush #41.
Mitchell: Let me ask you this Senator, I mean George Herbert Walker Bush first nominated her to the bench and...
Hatch: Wait a minute Andrea, wait a minute, I was on the Judiciary committee back then. At that time a district court judge was really effectively by the Senate so in this case both the...
Mitchell: I understand that both Senators from NY ...
Hatch: They had a one for one deal so I, she was chosen by a Democrat and George Herbert Walker Bush, really basically had no choice but to appoint her now...
Mitchell: You're saying by senatorial courtesy -- she was Pat Moniyhan's choice for the court. Let me ask you about your own vote in 1998, sir, I mean you voted for her, did you not? Or do I have that wrong? You were one of the seven Republicans.
Hatch: Well, let me just say this, I think the media tries to make something out of that because George Herbert Walker Bush was president. They shouldn't. She was basically picked by Senator Moniyhan, a Democrat. In 1998, for the Circuit Court of Appeals, I did vote for her because I believe in giving the president due deference, especially for Circuit Court of Appeals nominations, but now we're talking about...
When the Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to sit on the 2nd Circuit back in 1998, 29 Republicans voted AGAINST her -- including current Sens. Grassley, Hutchison, Kyl, McCain, McConnell, and Sessions (the latter of whom is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee). But 23 Republicans also voted FOR her -- including current Sens. Collins, Gregg, Hatch, Lugar, Snowe, and Specter (the latter of whom is now a Democrat).
She's been confirmed before as Andrea Mitchell stated in the video clip.
On the recommendation of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moniyhan, Sotomayor was nominated by President George H.W. Bush on November 27, 1991, to a seat on the Southern District of New York vacated by John Walker as Walker assumed senior status. Sotomayor was confirmed by the US Senate on August 11, 1992 on unanimous consent of the Senate and received commission on August 12, 1992. When she joined the court, she was its youngest judge.
Sotomayor left the Southern District of New York on October 13, 1998 due to her appointment to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
On the recommendation of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moniyhan, Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton on June 25, 1997 to a seat vacated by Daniel Mahoney. Sotomayor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 2, 1998 on a super majority 67-29-2 vote, receiving her commission on October 7, 1998.
In February 2009, in an article Esquire magazine, she was described as a one-of-a-kind nominee who "would slay two of the court's lack-of-diversity birds with one swift stone."
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As Orrin spins furiously... :)
mormon double talk for "I voted for her before I was against her".
Words that will haunt him. And probably get him thrown out of the Rush 'N' Cheney party.
Senator Hatch certainly believes in giving the president "due deference"--when the president is a Republican.
His track record--over and over and over again--has been to try to obstruct, stall, and derail nominees when the president is a Democrat.
Period. End of story. Lying, hypocritical son of a bitch. Baby Jesus doesn't like liars, Senator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt05KC3Add8
No more "milk" martinis for Mrs. Greenspan at Senator Hatch's social gatherings.
didn't he?
"Well, let me just say this, I think the media tries to occasionally make me look like a two-faced cretin by pointing out the cretinous two-faced things I do. They shouldn't."
One of the most infuriating scandals of the last Administration was the politicization of the DOJ. Rove and Gonzo were stacking the deck with apparatchiks in order to prosecute only those who wanted Justice for all.
If it was wrong for the DOJ, it is wrong with SCOTUS. When laws can be perverted according to political expediency and selfish whims, there is no Justice. When attorneys and judges can be hired and fired based on their willingness to bow to political pressure, we are all perverted.
Dumb bastard admitting he sold out and voted for someone he didn't believe in. Hatch is a career bullshitter and a hack who should be ignored. The Latino community is watching...mother fuckers.
...Clarence Thomas'(The GOP's affirmative action justice) ass as they easily confirmed him, are now giving this incomparably qualified Latino woman bullshit while calling her a racist.
They even demonized Anita Hill for daring to come forward with sexual harrassment claims against him and raked her over the coals. I wonder if the same people that were all up in arms when Kanye West proclaimed George Bush doesn't care about black people during Katrina will react the same way about rush limbaugh calling the POTUS a racist. Somehow I doubt it!
It is almost funny to see Hatch setting up now to vote against her now that a Democratic President has nominated her. To make it all the worse he actually is trying to use as his defense that there was a deal so he pretty much had to vote for her. Unbelievable!
No double standard or hypocrisy there Orin ! Sheeesh ! What an A hole .
I did vote for her because I believe in giving the president due deference, especially for Circuit Court of Appeals nominations, but now we're talking about...
But now were talking about a N_____ president and a S___ judge in the aftermath of the reign of [Deleted. Site Monitor] despot and a rubber stamp, corrupt, plutocratic Republican Congress.
Most Senators don't represent the people, they are patricians from the Latin
"patricii", aristocratic, neoptistic plutocrats who believe making law is for patricians to benefit patricians...let the mob be damned.
well put...and today's winnner.
"well put...and today's winnner."
...with the exception of the offensive use of the word "retarded." I flagged this as inappropriate. Hopefully, the site monitors will delete the post.
Hatch is basically setting us up for more obstruction and more no. And this gives Pawlenty more of a reason not to seat Franken.
all these various "communities" and continue to do so. Divide and Conquer.
We need to start seeing each other as people again not tribes, colors, nationalities, religions, titles, ego's who just happen to be living on a big chunk of earth called the United States first of all.
If we can accomplish that we can finish them off and start living again.
Seriously if equality is the goal we need to look beyond the superficial levels of roots and circumstances or people in positions of power defining who and what we are.
Exactly! Hatch's "tendency" is to present the chimera of fairness, but when it comes down to it's all just an illusion.
The press plays into the fake outrage, as though every judge is supposed to be a a right wing corporatist, like Alito. Democrats, cowards that they are, whine and moan and insist their nominee is a centrist. Can anyone imagine a Republican president picking a centrist Supreme Court nominee to appease us sensible people on the left? Not bloody likely.
The president should have chosen a solidly liberal judge and told the right to fark itself.
That's what they want progressives to believe. There is one major party-The Corporate American Party. It has 2-branches:GOP & Dems. The GOP is wholly owned by Corporate America & the Dem Party has a small wing called progressive. That's why we are staying in Iraq & Afghanistan, not getting single payer, giving trillions to Wall St. while screwing Main St., not choosing an actual liberal for the SCOTUS, eliminating unions & on & on... Enjoy the crumbs. That's all we're getting.
So he'll give Bush the Elder deference, but not Obama. Gotcha.
andrea
greenspanmitchell interviewing orrin "double standard" hatch about a "centrist" nominee of obama's... quite the establishment brawl, and quite theatrical.jesus, i can only imagine if obama would have chosen someone from the left. (which he should have for numerous reasons)
lawyer talk,You really have to keep up with every word they say,because I'v noticed they use a lot of it
Orrin "Magic Underwear" Hatch has always been one pompous A Hole!
Isn't O Sotomayor what they sing in Italian kitchens while flippin' pizzas?
Doesn't the fact that Obama's pick was originally a Bush pick raise any flags for you guys?
Sotomayor falls on the wrong side of church separation issues. That enough, for me, is to reject her.
Why can't Obama nominate a real liberal?
What information do you have about her on church and state,I would be very much interested in seeing that info. thanks ahead of time
I think it would be wise for us find out things like this before hand
Ms. Sotomajor is a safe pick & brillant politically. The GOP has lost the Black vote & appears to be done with the Latino vote. Let Rush, Cheney & their white male bigots rule the South. There are no longer two-major parties in reality. Maybe his next pick will be a real fire breathing liberal to burn a few behinds on that right wing gang that appointed George W.
Oh, come on. Let's get Orin on again. I love to see him walk backwards and talk out of the side of his mouth with both feet in it. hahahahahahahahaha
It is almost as funny as Rove caller her stupid. Hahahhahahah Oh, Christ, this is toooooo funny to watch.
"I ran out of gas... I, I had a flat tire... I didn't have enough money for cab fare... My tux didn't come back from the cleaners... An old friend came in from out of town... Someone stole my car. ..There was an earthquake... A terrible flood... Locusts !... IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!
"I did vote for her because I believe in giving the president due deference, especially for Circuit Court of Appeals nominations, but now we're talking about.."
They always have a reason why it's so different when they want to do something they derided Democrats for doing.
..the GOP in the 21st century where we won't play nice with the dark-skinned man in the White House or those radical Democratic Socialists who have taken over the country because we broke it!
Somebody call the WAH-mbulance!
Sorry...double post.
These hypocritical Reslug bastards can't lie or FLIP-FLOP fast enough.
...in this omni-dimensional universe do these hypocritical asshats think they are fooling, other than themselves?
Hatch is giving a truly Olympic-class demonstration of gymnastic intellectual dishonesty.
Andrea would never make it at Faux News. On there, she would have had to say, "They say Hatch...". I say, "Hatch is a rightwing ideologue." Andrea is peddling her usual Larry King in a wig "Softball Interview".
This dinosaur and his like are on their way out. They'll do what they can to slow down the confirmation of President Obama's appointee, but they are ball-less. They have nothing left in their bag of tricks but a few barks, some shit flinging, and sour puss predictions of doom.
Go eat shit and bark at the moon warren....you sad, sick, pathetic old political fart in the wind.
Oops...it's "orin", not "warren". WTF kind of hillbilly name is that anyway?
They could be just playing their part as "The loyal opposition"
you know,good cop bad cop routine ,in the end they all get what they want anyway,JMO of course
I'm gone be back later
With Obama's pick,Especially her views on seperation of church and state AND a woman's right to choose.
Yes it looks like "Change we can believe in" just not the "Change we Wanted" or expected
http://www.usnews.com/mobile/blogs/god-and-co...
We been fooled again
If Bush 41 had been a Democrat, he would have opposed Sotomayer. He only voted in favor of her because a Republican president nominated her.
Got it. Convoluted, silly, and ignorant, but, I got it.
Skeevosa...........
... of a GOPer, trying to backtrack on what he did. Listen to his voice -- WHINING! As the interview goes on, his voice gets more and more whinier.
Any parent recognizes this. When a child is told NO, they sometimes try to talk you out of the NO. And the whining starts, and then grows. Same with Republicans. Just listen to this!
Can she please ask her Husband to tell us how him,Timmy Geitner,Paulson,Bernanke,the FED, POTUS Obama, Bush, and the likes help bring this economy to it's knees. Plus how can they rob the poor to give to the rich and let people sleep in tents,underpasses,and the streets in the USA of America. Yes POTUS Obama voted for the stimulus package too..not too bright O!! You might want to read a bill first before you sign it, wait they don't do that in congress unless you consider hiring a speed reader anyways, well i guess that would actually account for them working.
I swear three jobs that pay where you can lie your behind off all day long, Politicians,pimps, and shady/hand in the collection plate clergyman...............
Come on now Orrin, spit it out
what now you're talking about walking goose-step with all your Nazi buddies?
These tired old repub farts are useless.
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