Glenn Greenwald on Obama's SCOTUS nomination: Defying Beltway Wisdom

[ProSense]

Defying Beltway Wisdom

Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional lawyer, is a columnist at Salon.com and the author, most recently, of “Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.”

At his best, President Obama is guided by his central campaign promise: to change the way politics in Washington is conducted by refusing to allow the same set of small, homogenized, insular voices to dictate outcomes and by defying conventional Beltway wisdom. His selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter is a perfect instance of his doing exactly that.

Almost immediately upon being named by news reports as a potential nominee, Judge Sotomayor was the target of what an editorial in The New York Times aptly described as “uninformed and mean-spirited chattering” from “anonymous detractors.” Much of that attack was driven by the insinuation that her career was attributable to affirmative action rather than merit. This whispering campaign came not only from the right, but also from what The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder called “the respectable intellectual center.”

The most widely cited report was an article in The New Republic by Jeffrey Rosen, which contained anonymous comments maligning Sonia Sotomayor’s intellect and character. He explained that those concerns were voiced by liberal “eminent legal scholars” too afraid to have their names attached to their views. Very quickly, those views became, in many circles, assumed truth.

These are the sorts of pseudo-authoritative establishment sources who so frequently exert undue and harmful influence on our political discourse. President Obama’s refusal to be influenced by such tactics speaks highly of his willingness, at times, to be independent of the Washington establishment.

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More Greenwald: Obama's choice of Sotomayor deserves praise

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[Cha]

1. Thank you for this, PS..

"It is very encouraging that Obama ignored the ugly, vindictive, and anonymous smear campaign led by The New Republic's Jeffrey Rosen and his secret cast of cowardly Eminent Liberal Legal Scholars of the Respectable Intellectual Center. People like that, engaging in tactics of that sort, have exerted far too much influence on our political culture for far too long, and Obama's selection of one of their most recent targets both reflects and advances the erosion of their odious influence. And Obama's choice is also a repudiation of the Jeffrey-Rosen/Ben-Wittes/Stuart-Taylor grievance on behalf of white males that, as Dahlia Lithwick put it, "a diverse bench must inevitably be a second-rate bench."

[AnnieBW]

2. We don't need Dems helping the RW Smear Machine

They have enough help on their own.

[grantcart]

3. k and r

[AlexanderProgressive]

4. Greenwald calls out the people he disagrees with by name

Which is a quality that should immitated by every journalist.
Greenwald calls Marc Ambinder and Jeffrey Rosen for their support in smearing Sotomayor, in the article cited by the OP.

[Jennicut]

5. Good for Greenwald. Nice to see him supportive of Sotomayor and Obama's decision.