NARRATIVES AND TALKING POINTS

So President Barack Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayer to be a U.S. Supreme Court justice. She's smart, well educated, experienced and seems to be a nice person. So what's not to like? Let's go to the tape:

• Orrin Hatch (R-Utah): "I will focus on determining whether Judge Sotomayor is committed to deciding cases based only on the law as made by the people and their elected representatives, not on personal feelings or politics."
• Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): "We will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences."
• Charles Grassley (R-Iowa): "The Judiciary Committee should take time to ensure that the nominee will be true to the Constitution and apply the law, not personal politics, feelings or preferences."
• John Cornyn (R-Tx.): "She must prove her commitment to impartially deciding cases based on the law, rather than based on her own personal politics, feelings, and preferences."
• Mike Huckabee: "The appointment of Maria Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama's campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric... The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the 'feelings' of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion."
  

Well, you know women. They just get so emotional.

Note that Huckabee got Sotomayor's first name wrong. But at least he got the talking point right.

And then there's this narrative developing of Sotomayor as a single mother born of immigrant parents who rose to the top of her profession. Back to the tape:

• Baltimore Sun: "...highest court began in a Bronx housing project, fed by Nancy Drew, inspired by Perry Mason and encouraged by her hardworking immigrant mother."
• New York Magazine: "Born to Puerto Rican immigrant parents in a housing project in the South Bronx, Sotomayor worked her way through Princeton and Yale Law ..."
• Daily Kos: "She is a first generation American, born of immigrant parents..."
• National Public Radio: "She is a first generation American, born of immigrant parents..."
• Politico: "She is a first generation American, born of immigrant parents..."

There are a couple of things wrong with this story. Her parents were not immigrants. They are from Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Puerto Rico is part of the the United States of America. (Or as they call it, Estados Unidos.)

Now you may quibble. You may point out that Puerto Rico can't be part of the United States because it is not a state. But think about it. Washington, D.C. is not a state, nor a part of one. But despite how many people wish it were not so, the district is part of the United States.

And the other thing. Sotomayor is not a single mother. Never was. This phony factoid originates with a piece in Politico by Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin, who called her a “Latina single mother.” But the thing is, to be a mother you have to have children, or at least a child. But Sotomayor doesn't have any. Never did.