There’s still no real evidence that Judge Sonia Sotomayor needs to campaign that hard to get confirmed to the Supreme Court. But she’s going to try anyway, starting tomorrow, with meetings with 10 — count ‘em, 10 — senators in one day.
She has heard they filibuster sometimes, right?
According to the White House, Sotomayor will meet tomorrow with the top four Senate leaders from both parties: Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, and Minority Leader Jon Kyl of Arizona. Also on the itinerary are Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican (for now)(for now) on the Judiciary Committee.
Oh, and she’ll also stop by and chat with Dianne Feinstein of California, the third-ranking Democrat on Judiciary, and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the second-ranking Republican and former chairman. And her fellow New Yorkers, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
That would be a pretty intensive Hill campaign even for a nominee who was in trouble. At the moment, all she’s facing is the likelihood of some verbal roughing-up by Republicans, mostly over her much-dissected comment that the Court of Appeals is where “policy is made.” McConnell said today that the qualities Republicans will look for are “superb legal ability, personal integrity, sound temperament, and, most importantly, a commitment to read the law even-handedly.” (And did he mention temperament?)
He may not have that much time to discuss the subject with her in person. With 10 senators to see, she’ll be racing around the Hill all day. Still, this White House clearly knows the value of stroking senators’ egos, which might just help the confirmation process go faster.
It’s already getting a bit competitive, though. Schumer’s release points out that he and Gillibrand will meet with Sotomayor for lunch “between her courtesy meetings with key senators.”
Everyone else gets courtesy meetings, but Schumer gets lunch.
![[RSS]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[ARCHIVES]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/archives_icon.png){kind=icon}
Post A Comment