GOP's Latino bashing to kick up a notch

by kos
from DailyKos
Tue Jun 23, 2009

With their Sotomayor strategy costing Republicans 10 points in the polling among Latinos, down to 8 percent favorable, what better next step than to see if they can bring those numbers down further?

Senate Republicans turned up the rhetorical heat Tuesday on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, raising concerns about her work for a Latino advocacy group.

Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said Sotomayor has done "extensive work" for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, an organization he said is "clearly outside the mainstream of [the] American approach to matters" and "has taken some very shocking positions with respect to terrorism."

The PRLDEF is a civil rights group fighting for desegregation, education, housing, voting rghts, and employment rights, which of course makes them a target of bigot Republicans. The irony, of course, is that Puerto Ricans are born US citizens, and unlike other Latino immigrant communities, boricuas on the mainland can automatically vote.

So expect this to turn into an extension of the already-failed "Sotomayor is a reverse racist" bullshit, with a healthy new dose of "and she's a terrorist too!"