It's Sotomayor!

Obama's choice to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supremes is Sonia Sotomayor. It doesn't come as a surprise, since she was on the short list almost from day one.

Also not surprisingly is the news media's scrambling to portray her as the first Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent. As I think I mentioned before, when Torquemada Gonzales' name was first bandied about as a possible Supreme (Jeez, that seems like it happened a long time ago in a galaxy far far away...) and the news media went nuts over his ethnicity, the actual first Supreme Court justice of Hispanic descent was Benjamin Cardozo, who served from 1932 until his death in 1938.

However, I also see that the media is now trying to make a distinction between "latina" and "Hispanic", since Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican heritage, making her "New World" Hispanic (aka "latina") and Cardozo was of Spanish extraction, his family having made the leap to our sovereign shores directly from Spain.

Whatever. It's a distinction without much of a difference. It doesn't matter where we came from. What matters is who we are now.

So watch all of the asshole Republicans (again, I repeat myself) start scrabbling to find some dirt on Sotomayor, anything that will allow them to try, with a straight face, to deny her the appointment to SCOTUS.

Well guess what, guys? You were the ones who agitated for a straight up-or-down vote back when your boys were nominated. Can you really change your minds about it now?

Okay, stupid question. Of course they can. And they will. After all, they know no shame.