It's Sonia

Three weeks ago when David Souter announced he was stepping down from the Supreme Court, everyone assumed that Obama would nominate a woman, and preferably a minority, to replace him. Check and check.

Meet Sonia Sotomayor.

She was pretty much the frontrunner from day one, so this comes as no surprise. Will she be a good justice? I'm not an expert, but my lawyer friends seem unanimous in their praise of her. She's considered a liberal, but a moderate one rather than a firebrand. Assuming she's confirmed (a very, very safe assumption) she'll be the third woman and just the first latino to be on the court. Interestingly, she'll be the sixth Catholic in this particular court.

And let's toot Esquire's horn for a moment here as they called this way back in October:

If Obama becomes president, his first nominee to the Supreme Court will likely be Sonia Sotomayor. As a Hispanic woman with 16 years of court experience, Sotomayor would slay two of the court's lack-of-diversity birds with one swift stone. "These are criteria that matter these days. Even Laura Bush was disappointed that her husband didn't name a woman to replace Sandra Day O'Connor," says Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard. And because Sotomayor has a reputation for staying behind the scenes and sits on a federal bench known for its centrism, it's likely that she would be able to garner a two-thirds majority in the Senate, even if the Democrats only control an estimated 55 or so seats.

Well done to them. Hopefully she's paid all her taxes and didn't have a nanny off the books.

Also, for those of you who don't follow the court: This doesn't really change things. Souter was liberal, Sotomayor is liberal, so the balance of the court pretty much remains 5-to-4 conservative-to-liberal.

EDIT: TPM already has a pretty comprehensive and hilarious look at GOP talking points.

The DNC's New Best Friend

It's official. The Republican Party the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats.

Case in point: this video recently posted on YouTube by the RNC. It actually makes no fucking sense, but I vaguely suspect it's some kind of murder/sex masturbation fantasy centering around Nancy Pelosi. I mean, we've all had them, sure. But we don't go around posting them on YouTube.

Conservatives are hella tough

Anybody can take a waterboarding, especially if they know they're not actually gonna drown, right?

Witness

"I don't want to say this... Absolutely torture... No way in hell, had I known it was that bad would I have done that."

The words are from conservative radio host Eric "Mancow" Muller. And full credit to the guy for having the balls to 1) submit himself to torture, and 2) admit he was wrong.

And for some perspective... this dude lasted six seconds. The typical person lasts 14. And, ya know, isn't around friends with an EMT standing by.

Absolutely torture. That's our legacy right now.

Maureen Dowd...

Get out.

NEW YORK – New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has admitted to using a paragraph virtually word-for-word from a prominent liberal blogger without attribution.

Dowd acknowledged the error in an e-mail to The Huffington Post on Sunday, the Web site reported. The Times corrected her column online to give proper credit for the material to Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall.

The newspaper issued a formal correction Monday saying Dowd "failed to attribute a paragraph about the timeline for prisoner abuse" to Marshall's blog.

The error appeared in Dowd's Sunday column, in which she criticized the Bush administration's use of interrogation methods in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Just when the NYT was actually turning things around... *sigh*

We interrupt my snarky little blog...

To cross-post some actual journalism from an old friend of mine, Jon Rougeot.

Fighting for the Right to Marry in New York

My partner, Craig, and I are in our early 30s. We've been in a committed, monogamous relationship for more than two years. We are sickeningly in love with each other. So, of course we are naturally peppered with the question, "Are you going to get married?" To which we answer, "We would love to, but we can't." At least, not in our adopted home state of New York.

Good luck, Jon. We're with you.

When did Paul Begala get so funny?

Hilarious, if not exactly ground-breaking stuff from lil' Paul:

According to a CNN poll taken in December - back when Cheney was spending most of his time hiding in a secure and undisclosed location - a fourth of all Americans believe Cheney is the worst vice president in American history. The worst. Worse than Spiro Agnew, who was a crook. Worse than Richard Nixon who, well, was a crook. Worse than Dan Quayle, who's looking better and better compared to Cheney. Worse even than Aaron Burr, who shot a guy. Oh, wait. Never mind.

When I think competence...

I think Lehman Brothers. But I think it sarcastically.

Mayor Mike apparently lacks my well-developed sense of humor. Or perhaps I lack his. Either way, he appointed a former Lehman Brothers exec as head of the NYC Housing Authority, which is responsible for housing nearly half a million New Yorkers. Seriously, this isn't a bad joke.

Meet John B. Rhea:

A graduate of Wesleyan University who also holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, Chairman Rhea began his career in the Fixed Income Division of PaineWebber Inc. He most recently served as Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Consumer/Retail Group at Barclays Capital (formerly Lehman Brothers) managing strategy and budget for one of the largest industry sector teams in investment banking.

Imagine the balls it takes to put the fact that you managed the budget - any budget! - at Lehman Bros. on your resume. Then imagine the balls it takes to hire that guy.

Sad thing is we're pretty much stuck with Bloomy for another four years since he bludgeoned term limits to death with the rod of unyielding hubris. Only way he loses is if Bill Clinton runs for mayor.

Anyone wanna start DraftBubbaNYC.org?