41 Shots (Sotomayor Day 2)

One of Bruce Springsteen's very good songs is a song called "41 shots." It is his take on the Amadou Diallo tragedy. There are lines in the song that tell the story from both ends of the tragedy: a police officer who shot Diallo but made a mistake and is praying for him to make it, and the Diallo vantage point, the victim who lost his life, in a hail of "41 shots." It is a song about empathy, despite the tragedy.

Day 2 of Justice Sotomayor's confirmation hearings was about that - empathy. The GOP, of course, has none; they think it is still 1919, "Red Summer." Most of them showed the world what and who they are, today and it isn't pretty. They are politicians, lost in the madness of Washington D.C. (the federal part not the city).

I know. I said I wasn't going to listen to too much of it but I did. Forgive me. I wanted to confirm again that the Republicans are petty, and the Democrats are too deferential.

Sotomayor tried to explain (and did) her "wise Latina" comment today but for the Republicans, it was just a chance to score points.

This is what Obama was talking about when he invoked empathy, the ability to see the other side. I personally don't think Judge Sotomayor has anything to explain. I would just tell them to listen to Springsteen's "41 shots."

I did enjoy her exchange with Senator Jeff Sessions on the recent New Haven discrimination case. She laid him to waste with her constitutional skills showing again she should be confirmed 100-0. But this is politics, not the real world.