One difference is that Miguel Estrada was born in Honduras, while Alberto Gonzales was born in Texas. Gray was playing the nationality card, but regards A.G. as a fellow American, though an unworthy one for a seat on the Court.

By  Anonymous, at 1:14 PM  

So is it your theory that what Gray was saying in his pro-Estrada ad was that Democrats have a bias in particular against first-generation immigrants from Spanish-speaking Western Hemisphere countries as opposed to a bias against people whose forebears immigrated from those countries somewhat longer ago? And that this was a reasonable thing to say?

Or are you saying that Gray himself makes a distinction, such that in his mind first-generation immigrants aren't really "fellow Americans"? (And somehow that he gets from there, to "It's ok to oppose one of my fellow Americans but not one of them outsiders?) Your attempt to explain Gray's twittiness has got me confused.

By  sam, at 1:31 PM  

I'm saying that there are many people who make no racial distinction but trust American-born persons more than the foreign-born. They're still wrong.

By  Anonymous, at 3:05 PM  

"We are nothing like our enemies." Gonzales, trying to explain away the events at Bagram, abu-Ghraib, et cetera.

Gonzales is a nationalist. Estrada, on the other hand, isn't. What's wrong with nationalists? They think that people from their country are better than everyone else. In my humble, Democratic opinion, Estrada would have been a better choice for Supreme Court than many judges, but I'm no lawyer, nor do I live in Texas. Gonzales' conduct of the war makes him a poor choice for justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. It's not inconsistent to think moral issues matter both abroad and at home. And as you're a labor lawyer, I imagine that you know about far too much of the harm that judicial nationalism does here at home, to laborers, mostly Hispanics, in America, each and every day.

By  Anonymous, at 3:19 PM  

I guess I'm still confused, then, as to whether you're disagreeing with me about Boyden Gray being a twit - or whether you are saying that Democrats were discriminating based on immigrant status in opposing Estrada.

By  sam, at 4:32 PM  

Boyden Gray is no twit. Actual twittiness is very rare.

Estrada was kept off the bench because of his stated views on Roe and, so far as I am aware, nothing else. The rhetoric against him probably was no more questionable than the grand-R Republicans used on Rahm Emanuel.

By  Anonymous, at 5:24 PM  

Post a Comment