Rope-A-Dope: Pelosi Falls Through The Trap Door On The Stage of Public Attention -- And Up Pops Sotomayor

Thomas de Zengotita
Contributing Editor at Harper's Magazine
Posted: May 26, 2009
from HuffPost

How smart is this move? How dumb are the true believers on the Republican Right? We shall see.

After months of trying to gain traction on something, anything, against the Obama administration, they finally had something going. The closing of Guantanamo problem and, even more effective, the possibility that Pelosi knew a little more, and a little sooner, about water boarding than we would like to believe. That has been hurting, don't kid yourself. Cheney's approval ratings are up from about 21% to about 37%. Panicky Democrats, with local polls near 80% against, have been trotting out NIMBY arguments opposed to stashing a couple of dozen terrorists in Supermax prisons anywhere near their constituents.

But now? How perfect is Sonia Sotomayor? She may be a red flag inches from a crazy bull's eyes. Not just because of the couple of things they have on her--the tape where she says stuff about judges making policy and the slightly hairy New Haven firefighter decision. No, not just that. Good old Sonia has a look and style that crypto-racist/sexist elitists hate with a visceral immediacy they may not be able to control. If that happens, they will find themselves attacking an Hispanic woman--probably the dumbest political thing they could do in this political environment.

(More here.)