Sessions Vote Won't Be a Surprise

In news that will shock absolutely no one, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) announced via an opinion piece in USA Today that he will vote against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Obama's first Supreme Court pick is set to face a full Senate vote by the end of the next week, and she is virtually assured confirmation.

Sotomayor would become the country's first Hispanic Supreme Court judge. Somewhere, Pat Buchanan is pulling out what's left of his hair.

Sessions isn't the first Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to admit he'll vote against Sotomayor; Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the second-ranking Republican on the committee, has also said he'll vote against Sotomayor.

Several Republicans, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they would vote for her.

Sessions is the leading Republican on the committee, and he was not confirmed in his own Supreme Court nomination in the 1980s because of biased, racist views he expressed on nuerous occasions.

So, can anyone guess why he's going to vote against Sotomayor?

He claims it's because he doesn't think Sotomayor has the conviction to resist the pull of judicial activism -- even though just about every Republican on the committee admitted during her confirmation hearings that her record was "pretty mainstream," if not "slightly left of center."

Psst, Republicans! If you're gonna get on Sotomayor's case about judicial activism, why did you support John Roberts? Oh, that's right ... he's an old white guy, like you!

The racist undertones of the impending vote are only there because of the racial undertones of her confimation hearings. The Republicans spent three of the four days harping on her "wise Latina" comment, even after Sotomayor explained the context of the remark and expressed regret that she'd said it in that way.

There was also a Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy impression from one of the Senators that had racial undertones, and it seemed like the Republicans couldn't drop the issue that there was a smart Hispanic woman up for the high court -- probably like the birthers can't drop the issue that an African-American is in the White House.

Sessions even suggested Sotomayor should've voted alongside another one of her Puerto Rican colleagues. Because nothing screams racism like, "Don't all you people think the same way?"

That Sotomayor will become a Supreme Court justice is a virtual certainty ... as is the reality that as long as they keep playing the race card and pandering to the lowest common denominator within their party, the Republicans will continue to alienate themselves from the American people and render any argument they have on any matter useless.

The question is ... do they care?