Republicans, Obama soften court debate

by Mark Silva

Just as Republican leaders attempt to soften the party's criticism for Judge Sonia Sotomayor's widely critiqued comment about the wisdom of a Latino woman, relative to that of a white man, the White House is attempting to walk her back from it.

First the White House press secretary today, and then the president, in an interview taped with NBC News today, suggested that Sotomayor probably would have chosen her words differently than she did in 2001 if she had a chance to rephrase them.

"This is the quote,'' NBC Evening News anchor Brian Williams reminded President Barack Obama, in an interview that the network aired this evening: "'I would hope that a wise Latino woman, with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.'' The president's nominee for the Supreme Court said that in an address at the University of California at Berkeley.

"It's your judgment perhaps, having talked to the judge, that as we say, that's one of those she'd rather have back if she had it to redo?" the anchorman asked the president.

"I'm sure she would have restated it,'' Obama said. "But if you look in the entire sweep of the essay that she wrote, what's clear is that she was simply saying that her life experiences will give her information about the struggles and hardships that people are going through - that will make her a good judge.''

Conservative Republicans have attacked Sotomayor over the comment, with radio's Rush Limbaugh calling her a "reverse racist,'' former Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado saying it appears to be a racist comment and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggesting that if a white male had said something similar, he'd have to withdraw from consideration for the court.

"All this nonsense that is being spewed out will be revealed for what it is,'' the president said in his interview.

The criticism itself has raised eyebrows among more moderate Republicans who worry about the impression that the party is creating in attacking a clearly well-qualified woman who likely will become the first Hispanic member of the nation's highest court, at a time when Democrats, Obama in particular, have won the support of the nation's fastest growing minority.

Senior senators and GOP strategists "are trying to steer the debate over Sonia Sotomayor away from the apocalyptic battle cries of conservative icons Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh in favor of a more measured conversation about the legal philosophy and qualifications of the first Latino to be nominated to the court,'' our Washington Bureau's Janet Hook reports.

"It's terrible," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a National Public Radio interview aired today condemning Gingrich and Limbaugh for calling Sotomayor a racist. "This is not the kind of tone that any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent."

Yet today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that, while he hadn't spoken with Sotomayor about it, he believes she would have expressed that sentiment differently.

"And you know,'' Obama said in the interview with NBC News, "she was pointing out, in that same essay, that it was nine white males who passed down Brown versus Board of Education, which is probably responsible for me sitting here.

"So that's hardly the kind of statement that would indicate that she subscribes to identity politics,'' Obama said. "In fact, what she really subscribes to is the exact opposite. Which is the sense that all of us have life experiences and struggles.

"And part of the job of a justice on the Supreme Court, or any judge, is to be able to stand in somebody else's shoes, to be able to, you know, understand that the nature of the case, and how it has an impact on people's ordinary day to day lives,'' Obama said. "And so her, as a Latino woman part of her job is gonna be to listen to the farmer in Iowa. And you know, if he's upset about a farm regulation. And be able to understand how hard it is to farm. And what that means. And to be able to incorporate that into her decision making.

"It means that she has an understanding of what a corporate CEO might be thinking,'' he said. "And she had those experiences as well. Having worked as a corporate litigator.

"That breadth of experience, that knowledge of how the world works, is part of what we want for a justice who's gonna be effective. And I think that when she's appearing before the Senate committee, in her confirmation process, I think all this nonsense that is being spewed out will be revealed for what it is."

These comments aired this evening on the NBC Evening News. The full interview will air as part of NBC News' "Inside the Obama White House: Brian Williams Reports," Tuesday and Wednesday, June 2 and 3, at 9-10 PM EDT.