Via Dave Weigel, Trevor Griffey discovers a 1971 Pat Buchanan memo in which he recommends that President Nixon give the "black seat" or the "Jewish seat" on the Supreme Court to white ethnics like Italians or Irish. Early in the memo, Buchanan simply suggests giving preferential treatment to white ethnics in general, then later he explicitly suggests doing so through the Supreme Court (emphasis Weigel's):
[I]nstead of sending the orders out to all our other agencies — hire blacks and women — the order should go out — hire ethnic Catholics preferable women, for visible posts. One example: Italian Americans, unlike blacks, have never had a Supreme Court member — they are deeply concerned with their “criminal” image; they do not dislike the President. Give those fellows the “Jewish seat” or the “black seat” on the Court when it becomes available.
So Buchanan isn't opposed to "race-based preferences" as long as they're reserved for white people (Jews don't count).
Buchanan's problems with Sonia Sotomayor seem to have a lot to do with projection. Buchanan sees success as a zero-sum competition between whites and non-whites, and he knows which team he's on. He believes Sotomayor's statements have revealed her to be as instinctively tribal as he is, and so he's taken to belittling her by any means necessary. All's fair in love and race war.
-- A. Serwer
