Source: feministing.com
See Video of Senator Lindsey Graham’s questioning of Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor on Home Page.
By any objective standard, Senator Lindsey Graham’s questioning of Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayer thus far, has been condescending and hectoring. Indeed, one could call his approach sexist, as he sought to question Sotomayor’s temper. At times, the Senator was aggressive, interrupting the nominee on numerous occasions and requesting her to explain, many times, her understanding of certain legal concepts and current events.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) read out a laundry list of complaints about the nominee. Graham went through insult after insult from anonymous reviews about Sotomayor’s temperament, including ones that called her “nasty,” “a terror,” “a bit of a bull,” and one that said she lacks any “judicial temperament.” Graham then asked her directly: “Do you think you have a temperament problem?”
As both Samhita and Ann have written, there’s a specific sexist and racist narrative that accompanies the accusations of Sotomayor as somehow angry or meaner than her male counterparts. (Because when white dudes are strong, they’re just powerful. When women of color are strong, they’re scary.) And it’s simply infuriating to watch it play out in these hearings.
Sen. Graham’s “temperament” at Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings
[…] Senator Lindsay Graham, was the only Republican on the Committee to support Sotomayor. The Democrats on the Committee voted unanimously for the Latina. […]