KXXV-TV News Channel 25 - Central Texas News and Weather for Waco, Temple, Killeen | Cornyn believes Limbaugh's comments are "rush to judgment"

Cornyn believes Limbaugh's comments are "rush to judgment"

by Kevin Davis and Natasha Chen

TEMPLE - While speaking about healthcare reform at Scott & White hospital in Temple on Friday, Sen. John Cornyn answered questions about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

Cornyn took issue with Rush Limbaugh's recent comments about Sotomayor, saying it was a "rush to judgment." Limbaugh had previously called Sotomayor a "bigot" and "reverse racist" among other things.  On Friday, Cornyn said "the comments I've seen are comments that I disagree with...It should not make any difference, the ethnicity or a sex of a judge any more than it should make a difference about the ethnicity or race of an umpire in a baseball game.  Their job is to call balls and strikes, it's not to somehow impose their perspective because of their ethnicity."

When asked if Limbaugh was wrong to call Sotomayor a "bigot," Cornyn said that questions should be brought up about Sotomayor but "to do so in a civil and dignified proceeding.  Name-calling is not the way to get started on the right foot."  He also wishes "people would calm down a lot" about discussing Sotomayor's qualifications.

When Cornyn was asked if pressing too hard on Sotomayor, A Hispanic woman, would hurt the Republican party's ability to woo Hispanic voters in the 2010 mid-term elections, he mentioned that the Democrats had done things very similar during Miguel Astrada's nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  Astrada was not given an up or down vote by Senate Democrats who filibustered the nomination.

Sotomayor had previously questioned a view espoused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former justice Sandra Day O'Connor that a wise old woman and wise old man would come to the same conclusion, saying:

"I would hope that a wise Latina 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."

Limbaugh and many other conservative commentators have taken issue with Sotomayor's statement.

Newt Gingrich wrote on his blog, "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman.' Wouldn't they have to withdraw? New racism is no better than old racism.  A white man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw."