Today's White House Spin - Racism Against Whites Was "Precedent"

The White House knows how bad today's Supreme Court ruling looks for Sonia Sotomayor. She and her fellow appeals court judges tried to deny white firefighters from New Haven, CT their civil rights. Here's how they tried to spin it:

The White House came to the defense of President Obama's pick to be the newest Supreme Court justice after Judge Sonia Sotomayor's ruling in a racially charged case was reversed by the Supreme Court.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs all but accused the current court of "judicial activism," a buzz term used by conservatives in recent years, in overturning what the White House saw as Sotomayor's upholding of precedent.

The highest court ruled Monday that a group of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. were discriminated against after the city threw out a promotion test after one Hispanic and no African-Americans passed. Sotomayor ruled in favor of the city as an appeals court judge.

Republicans on Monday sought to use the case to question Sotomayor's qualifications and buy more time before her confirmation hearings are set to begin on July 13.

But Gibbs said that the case "denotes that [Sotomayor] is a follower of precedent," and the arguments over judicial activism "seem to be at the very least upside-down in this case."

Gibbs said the case proves "she doesn't legislate from the bench."

"I think it is an interesting new interpretation of a law that has been reviewed by many judges in many courts, judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans."

I will agree with one thing - it was quite fashionable in legal circles to allow racism against white men, but that didn't make it right.

What was really laughable this afternoon was the reaction of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano who said he was worried about the black firefighters who scored poorly on the exam.

Well boo-hoo - try studying next time.

The mayor went on to suggest that "every test in their life is set-up so they fail". What liberal guilt bovine excrement. Turn off BET and open a book.

I still have my doubts that this ruling will in any way slow down Sotomayor's confirmation, but it certainly won't make things any smoother and should give the Republicans some good material for questions.