If There's a Knock on Sotomayor, It's Not Inexperience

By Al Kamen
Friday, June 12, 2009

The battle over Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court has moved into high gear, with the Senate Judiciary Committee setting hearings for July 13. Some on the Hill are predicting an all-out Republican fight on this one. Others predict there will be some spirited GOP questioning, enough to mollify the base, but not much more -- after all, the Latino vote can swing as many as 56 electoral votes in the Southwest and Florida.

Barring a major surprise, Democrats are feeling pretty confident that she'll be approved and that she has the legal experience needed for the job.

Quick Loop Quiz! Sotomayor, with more than six years of district court and more than 10 years of appeals court experience, goes before the committee with more years of total experience in the federal courts than any Supreme Court justice since . . .?

Ah, you guessed it: since the legendary Justice Horace Harmon Lurton, who served for 17 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit before going to the high court in 1910. Lurton, a former Confederate soldier whose photos remind some of White House counselor David Axelrod, served only four years before he died, so he didn't leave a substantial jurisprudential footprint.

PRECEDENT IS PRECEDENT

Speaking of the Supreme Court, the Loop 2009 Legal Citation of the Year goes to Justice Antonin Scalia, writing in dissent to Monday's ruling that state court judges may be obliged to recuse themselves from a case if they've received large campaign contributions from one of the litigants.

Scalia wrote that a "Talmudic maxim instructs with respect to the Scripture: 'Turn it over, and turn it over, for all is therein.' The Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Aboth, Ch. V, Mishnah 22 (I. Epstein ed. 1935)."

Scalia, we seem to recall, hasn't been a big fan of international law, but as Richard Hasen, an election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, opined, he doesn't "mind citing foreign law, so long as it is a few thousand years old."

Well, it hasn't been overturned.

NEW SURGEON GENERAL?

There's increasing chatter these days that Susan Blumenthal, former assistant surgeon general and a Clinton White House adviser on health issues, is emerging as a leading candidate to be surgeon general. Blumenthal is married to Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.).

FAINT PRAISE FOR GABON

President Obama's mom must have taught him that if you can't say something good about someone, don't say anything at all.

Here's what the State Department said in its Feb. 25 human rights report on the small African country of Gabon, ruled since 1967 by President Omar Bongo, who "was reelected for a seven-year term in an election [in 2005] marred by irregularities."

"The country's human rights record remained poor," the report noted, citing "use of excessive force, including torture toward prisoners and detainees . . . arbitrary arrest and detention . . . restrictions on the right to privacy . . . on freedom of speech, press, association, and movement."

There were problems with "harassment of refugees, widespread government corruption, violence and societal discrimination against women, persons with HIV/AIDS," the report added, in addition to "trafficking in persons, particularly children" and "forced labor and child labor." Overall, a most idyllic place.

But when Bongo died Monday, Obama was obliged to say at least something marking the event. So he issued a brief statement that afternoon saying he was "saddened to learn of the death." Obama praised Bongo for "seeking compromise and striving for peace" and noted "his work in conservation in his country."

Seems Bongo set aside about 10 percent of his country for national parks after he viewed National Geographic photos of its pristine wilderness. (He also wanted to ensure a visit by then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.)

The State Department weighed in the next day. (It takes a while for the department to issue a simple 125-word statement; apparently there's a logjam of some sort on the seventh floor.) That statement was equally restrained, hailing Bongo's efforts "to resolve conflict throughout the continent."

Easy to focus on the rest of the continent when everything's so shipshape at home.

PARTY LINES

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) ran the exceptionally successful K Street Project, aimed at ensuring that trade associations and lobbying outfits hired Republicans. Now the Democrats appear to have launched a J Street project.

The banking lobby, in the cross hairs these days of the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Obama administration, is run by Republicans. For example, the Financial Services Roundtable is headed by Steve Bartlett, a former GOP House member from Texas. The Financial Services Forum's leader is Rob Nichols, assistant Treasury secretary in the Bush administration. And the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is run by T. Timothy Ryan, head of the Office of Thrift Supervision under Bush I. Michael Pease, who worked for Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), was head of SIFMA's Washington office, but he just left for Goldman Sachs.

Word is that Kevin Fromer, who worked for former House speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and more recently as assistant secretary for legislative affairs for Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, is a leading candidate, with Paulson's support, to replace Pease in that power job.

Well, Republicans are said to understand financial things better. And besides, there is no J Street.

CORRECTION

Wednesday's column item about Aaron Williams, a leading candidate for Peace Corps director, misidentified his employer. He's a top executive with RTI International.