Racism is the GOP's turd in the punchbowl (Sen. Tom Coburn at the Sotomayor hearings)

Why I am not a pundit

I predicted that some stupid things would be said at the hearings that would shed no light on the nominee, just Senators drawing attention to themselves. Indeed they have

OK read this: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i50DeDW5LZUDAChBxX2Oqt4co18wD99F111G0

I recognize that we are supposed to be post-racial America and that its very trendy to say "I have given out enough apologies, leave me alone with my racial prejudices."

Except that its baloney.

The academic lecture part of my blog post

I should pause here with a bit of semiotics theory. Semiotics is a fancy word for the idea that bleeps blurps and waggles = all you really have to make yourself understandable. The theoretical idea is the context of the noises you make can signal what you are really thinking, but the noises themselves that are not intrinsically one way or another. Which means the same noises can communicate a totally different set of thoughts; Or in isolation they can have no meaning at all.

The heart-warming anecdote

I got into a big fight with a close law school friend of mine over the use of a date on a t-shirt to convey a racist message (it was Toyota Autoworkers in the US and the date was Pearl Harbor day). His point, correct but irrelevant, was that "those numbers aren't racist." Context is racist and the racism is subjective, as is all communication. So this is the take-away on semiotic theory: occasionally a person does or says something that because of where, when, how, or to whom it was said, gives a very specific message about what that person thinks or feels. This message is stronger if it completes a picture of what you already believe. The message becomes a fact. "Fact: Person X said this. That is a fact. And if its a fact, I believe it."

Back to my main point (isn't this post awesome with section subtitles?)

I'll skip the flip-side of this idea (cognitive dissonance) and get right to my point:

Sen. Coborn managed to confirm what I suspected about GOP opposition to Sotomayor in one single ethnic joke. Republicans (not just elected ones) who aren't offended by this don't and won't see it. They will point to the broader context of how the famous Ricky Riccardo catch-phrase is used all the time by all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons, mostly funny, and that its a form of liberal thought-police censorship. I wrote this paragraph yesterday, and now it has happened. Here comes the link... POOF!

Let me just say this:

Congressional hearings are not the saloon. Nor is it "gotcha" politics to point out that doing a Ricky Ricardo imitation while questioning Sotomayor in a public hearing evidences an underlying personal and/or racial animosity. The statements, questions, and asides made for a Supreme Court Confirmation hearing are not merely a coincidence. Its not "only a joke." And, oh yeah... nothing is off the record, every word that is bolivated from these farcical hearings are preserved for all posterity. Each Senator has a staff of people to prevent extemporaneous statements in favor of sound bites to tossed out to the mosaic of PACs that either elected the Senators on the committee or raised money specifically for or against the nominee. For however our democracy ought to be, the fact is that thousands of votes and millions of contribution dollars are at stake when it comes to theatres of political and rhetorical conflict (like confirmation hearings) between the two parties. In this context, for Coburn to overcome those barriers and lay a turd in the punch bowl like that is amazing.

Just to infuriate people and confuse the issue, I will totally make something up as a way to make my point. Because "Fact: Person X imagined this. That is a fact. I am person X. That's not a fact so much as an assignment of a fact to a variable, but if its a fact, I believe it. "

I imagine, you decide

When they nominate me to be on the Supreme Court, and some GOP Senator gets aggravated by his ignorance of the law and by my "I'm talking to you like a 4th grader" tone, and tires of my explaining the difference between holding and dicta as a way of not answering his question about a real "gotcha" quote of mine and blurts out:

"Confucius say, those who quote me are fools."

And the gallery laughs at the quip as if he was Noel Coward. I will have too much dignity to do anything but let it slide.