Chicago Republicans

Sonia Sotomayor will begin answering questions from Senators at her confirmation hearings today with the knowledge that she will be confirmed by the Democratic Senate unless, as GOP Senator Lindsey Graham put it, she has a "meltdown." But she also knows polls are showing she has attracted more opposition than all but one Supreme Court nominee in the last two decades -- the ill-fated Harriet Miers, who was appointed by George W. Bush but forced to withdraw in 2005.
A new CNN poll shows that Americans favor Ms. Sotomayor's confirmation by 47% to 40%. Opposition to Ms. Miers topped out at 43%. No other nominee, including Robert Bork in 1987, faced opposition that intense.
Not surprisingly, Democrats overwhelmingly favor Ms. Sotomayor's confirmation while Republicans are skeptical. Independents are split evenly, with 42% favoring confirmation and 41% opposing it.
A new Rasmussen Reports poll sheds some light on why opposition to Ms. Sotomayor has grown. Rasmussen finds that 37% of those surveyed want her confirmed while 39% do not, with many of those opposed expressing concern about the New Haven firefighter reverse-discrimination case (in which Ms. Sotomayor was part of a panel of judges overruled by the Supreme Court last month).
Secondly, 66% of those surveyed by Rasmussen said they believe that well-qualified male and female judges would reach the same conclusion on points of law most of the time. That stands in distinction to Ms. Sotomayor's famous statement: "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."
The White House has since explained that the nominee "misspoke," but Ms. Sotomayor has been publicly silent on the issue until now. You can bet Senators will have numerous questions for her on that and other subjects as the hearings get underway today.
-- John Fund

I met John Fund last week in Vegas at Freedom Fest after he gave a speech about how Conservatives have been able to make comebacks after a Liberal candidate who ran to the center and won, moved too far left with their legislative agenda (Carter 1979, Clinton 1994). He's a great speaker.
Despite the polls, Sonia Sotomayor is going to be approved.