Jul/090
The Coburn Sotomayor Comedy Hour
Judge Sotomayor’s Confirmation hearings have given us a wealth of completely insane moments, but there’s one in particular that’s stuck in my head. On Wednesday there was a particularly weird exchange between Judge Sotomayor and Senator Coburn that, predictably, became pretty goddamn racist.
SOTOMAYOR: …the question that would come up, and does come up before juries and judges, is how eminent is the threat. If the threat was in this room, “I’m going to come get you,” and you go home and get — or I go home.
I don’t want to suggest I am, by the way. Please, I’m not — I don’t want anybody to misunderstand what I’m trying to say.
(LAUGHTER)
If I go home, get a gun, come back and shoot you, that may not be legal under New York law because you would have alternative ways to defend…
COBURN: You’ll have lots of ’splainin’ to do.
SOTOMAYOR: I’d be in a lot of trouble then.
Really, Sen. Coburn? A Ricky Ricardo impersonation? It’s stunning that there isn’t some little part of his brain screaming you idiot, that is not a thing you should say. He’s a Senator for fuck’s sake, this is the kind of thing he should be aware of.
Hell, with all the talk about guns he could have at least gone with Scarface – that could actually have been argued to be relevant. People would still call him out for being racist, but at least he’d have something to work with.
So considering that the alternative to his being a total idiot is that he’s a complete racist, I almost feel sorry for the man.
Almost.
