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- The candid bigotry coming from all corners of the right wing in the mere day since Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the Supreme Court is just astonishing. Tom Tancredo and Newt Gingrich both believe Sotomayor is "racist," although one wonders why anyone would care what these two former lawmakers think about anything. Meanwhile, you've got the Judiciary Committee's ranking member fretting about the "threat" to the Court's "heritage" and Michael Goldfarb's racist musings on the high court's first affirmative action hire. [Ed. note: Previously, quotation marks were mistakenly placed around the phrase "affirmative action hire."] Fortunately, one conservative blogger sees an "opportunity for Republicans to reestablish their identity" and veteran movement conservatives are cuing the training montage music as the nomination reunites the movement. Helpfully, Brian Beutler reviews the figures who have the most to gain from the Sotomayor brouhaha.
- Former McCain campaign adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin wants to build a "Center for American Progress for the right" because the GOP needs more diversity of ideas. Well, no argument here. But the CAP comparison is inaccurate, considering that conservatives already have plenty of think tanks. Kevin Drum takes this a step further, clarifying that what Holtz-Eakin really meant was that the right needs a "conservative DLC."
- Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) has a short and amateurish video out for the Republican Study Committee that argues Barack Obama is dividing the country because he won't stand with "a group of investment firms and hedge funds" who received federal bailout funds. Price then solemnly tells us that he finds it disturbing that the president would side with taxpayers instead of incompetent rich people. It's always helpful when the GOP explicitly tells us who they're looking out for.
- I'm glad Harry Reid has recognized the folly of adopting the right wing's "terrorists as supervillians" storyline, conceding that some Guantanamo detainees will need to be incarcerated in stateside supermax prisons. Max Baucus, meanwhile, has decided that it's far more accurate to portray terrorists as the brains-hungry zombies among us.
- I realize that replacing a moderate member of the Supreme Court with another moderate is a very big deal, requiring the political world's undivided attention, but it would be nice if a few spare cycles could be devoted to North Korea's increased bellicosity. Fortunately we have noted conservative intellectual Jonah Goldberg to tell us that Barack Obama would probably be unwilling to retaliate in the event of Pyongyang nuking Seoul or Los Angeles.
- Remainders: Joe Sestak throws his hat in the ring; Nate Silver doesn't see a gay marriage divide between Hispanics and whites; free market paradises get a promotional video; and The New York Times is wasting money on mustachioed columnists.
--Mori Dinauer
