President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is meeting with various Senators today, in advance of her upcoming confirmation hearing. Last week, Ben Smith at Politico culled this foodie bit from Judge Sotomayor's 2001 Olmos lecture at Berkeley, in which she was discussing race, identity, and judicial issues:For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir — rice, beans and pork — that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events. My Latina identity also includes...morcilla — pig intestines, patitas de cerdo con garbanzo — pigs' feet with beans, and la lengua y orejas de cuchifrito, pigs' tongue and ears.
Fantastically, Conservatives opposed to Sotomayor's appointment picked up on this foodie admission, and tried to mangle it into an attack on Sotomayor, suggesting that her food choices would gravely impact her decisions on the bench. Brian Butler at Talking Points Memo hunted down the whole bizarre story. He writes:
According to Hill reporter Alexander Bolton, "This has prompted some Republicans to muse privately about whether Sotomayor is suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine....would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench." Bolton said [his] source was drawing, "a deductive link," between Sotomayor's thoughts on Puerto Rican food and her other statements. And I guess the chain goes something like this: 1). Sotomayor implied that her Latina identity informs her jurisprudence, 2). She also implied that Puerto Rican cuisine is a crucial part of her Latina identity, 3). Ergo, her gastronomical proclivities will be a non-negligible factor for her when she's considering cases before the Supreme Court. Got it? Good. This is the conservative opposition to Sotomayor.
Hmmmm....wonder what the Cons are making of all those M&Ms in the West Wing?
