Hatching the race card

Last night, Sen. Orrin Hatch, with over a quarter-century
experience on the Senate Judiciary Committee, ripped into the Democrats for filibustering
to block a vote on President Bush’s judicial nominee to the 2nd Circuit Court
of Appeals in D.C., Miguel Estrada.

First, Hatch fired this salvo at Sen. Patrick Leahy of
Vermont, who accused President Bush of acting like a child on a playground:
"I have been listening to this day after day after day. It is clear this
is a game. It is a bad game. If they don’t like the answers Mr. Estrada has
given, vote against him. That is the remedy here. Don’t filibuster. Vote against
him. Talk against him, like we have had plenty of. Then you have an absolute
right to vote against him if you want to."

He also said that blocking Estrada’s nomination smacked
of racism. Hatch snapped, "It is hypocritical. It is wrong. It is unfair.
It is establishing a precedent that could hurt this country immeasurably. …
To do it against the first Hispanic nominated to the Circuit Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia is particularly reprehensible, especially since
he has every qualification a person needs to fulfill this responsibility. How
far do we go with these ridiculous arguments, these unfair arguments, these
discriminatory and prejudicial arguments, against a person who has every qualification
to be on this court?" [Full
Story]

When I heard part of this speech I thought great someone is finally giving
the Dumb-eractic Party a taste of their own medicine in the race card wars.
Upon further reflection trying to say that they will filibuster him because
he is Hispanic is just not true. They just suspect that Estrada will follow
the Constitution and not legislate from the bench; so it has nothing to do with
race but ideology. How can we complain about some people calling conservatives
racist when we disagree with someone’s ideology and then turn around and do
the same?