Tuesday, May 26, 2009
White House press office info on Sotomayor
The White House press office (slide 13 of 14) has distributed this picture and text from Sonia Sotomayor's 1976 Princeton yearbook ("The Nassau Herald"):
Norman Thomas was a member of the Class of 1905 at Princeton, which makes the quote somewhat more relevant in a Princeton yearbook, but he was also the leading figure in the Socialist Party of America during the last century. Thomas was a pacifist, and opposed U.S. entry into both WWI and WWII (as did "conservative" America First members, in the latter case), and his early admiration for the Russian Revolution ultimately soured into staunch anti-Communism.
Now, I would not want to be hung on my high school or college yearbook quotes, and the Thomas quote is relatively harmless and inspiring in some sense, but it is at least interesting and notable that the White House sees no need to underplay the fact that its nominee for SCOTUS quoted the most significant Socialist Party leader in American history. That is what you call confidence, in terms of believing your nominee will be confirmed.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue May 26, 09:21:00 PM:
Is that all you got on her? It wouldn't take much trolling among my college classmates to create a rap sheet on me.
Link, over
By , at
Wed May 27, 12:04:00 AM:
As a despicable piece of human trash, Norman Thomas pales next to either Bill Ayers or Reverend Wright.
Nor, as noted in your last post, is being dimwitted and obnoxious a disqualification for SCOTUS.
So why shouldn't she expect to be confirmed?
Besides, judging by that one glamor shot, she may have been something of a hottie back in the day!
By 
John, at
Wed May 27, 02:53:00 PM:
I think that it's more likely that the White House didn't bother researching who Norman Thomas was.
By joated, at
Wed May 27, 07:56:00 PM:
John may have it correct, or the use of the photo with the Thomas quote was preemptive. They knew it was out there and felt it was better if they exposed it themselves rather than make it look like they were trying to hide it.
By John, at
Thu May 28, 09:34:00 AM:
I hadn't thought of that. It would be very cunning of them to preempt the diggers now hard at work on Sotamayor. And so far the Obama Administration has been quite media savvy -- at least by Washington standards.
