What if Sotomayor is Pro-Life?

RUSH: What, Mr. Snerdley? Have my words been too strong on Sotomayor? Are you asking because Newt has retracted his? No, my words have not been too strong.

I just heard right before the program started, I didn’t have a chance to do a whole lot of show prep late because of the Hannity interview, so after the interview I checked my e-mail and three members of the state-run media had sent me e-mails wanting my reaction to Newt’s retraction of his calling Sotomayor a racist, and I didn’t know that he had. And I didn’t know why he retracted it. And I still don’t. What did he say? Why did he retract it? Did he say he thought the word was too harsh? Well, I have my own theory about what Newt’s doing, but since I’m not doing it, I’m not going to comment. I’m not retracting it. Nobody’s refuted it. You know, they’re out there saying, ‘That’s too harsh, that’s distracting, Rush. You just don’t want to use the word.’ Why? If the word means something, words mean things, and if it fits, I use it. Now, they may say, ‘Don’t say it, Rush, dial it back a little.’ But nobody is saying I’m wrong. Nobody is saying I’m making it up. I mean, when she says she’d do a better job than a white guy, what is it? It’s racism, reverse racism, whatever, but it’s still racism, and she would bring a form of racism and bigotry to the court.

But as I said yesterday, folks, I may look past that. I’ve got a whole stack on Sotomayor today. She would be the sixth Catholic on the Supreme Court and there are a lot of people worried about that. That does not bother me at all. I know a lot of Catholics. I love Catholics. But Sotomayor, she’s a Catholic, and she doesn’t have a clear record on abortion. Overturning Roe v. Wade, boy, it would be huge. I don’t know that it will ever happen, but the opportunity to get somebody like her: she’s a Catholic, she’s a devout Catholic, she’s a Hispanic Catholic, Puerto Rican, they tend to be devout, she hasn’t got a record on this. Normally liberals do have a record. I mean, when they’re pro-choice, man, they champion it and they shout it from the mountaintops, they trumpet it. She hasn’t. So I can see a possibility of supporting this nomination if I could be convinced that she does have a sensibility toward life in a legal sense, of course, in a real sense.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, a lot of you, I check my e-mail. One guy writes, ‘Are you out of your mind? Are you out of your mind? You think Obama would nominate somebody who isn’t pro-choice?’ Well, folks, we nominated David Souter thinking he was conservative. Obama said he didn’t talk to her about it. Now, we had a news story here from McClatchy Newspapers. They’re state-run media. ‘The killing of a prominent abortion doctor brought anti-abortion activists Monday to the Supreme Court and fresh attention to high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s ambiguous stance on the … issue.

‘Activists on all sides can find solace in different parts of Sotomayor’s record on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. She backed some abortion clinic protesters and a restrictive Bush administration policy on international family planning. At other times, she agreed with prosecutors who were seeking to charge clinic protesters with criminal contempt,’ and they make the point that she ‘is Roman Catholic, as are five other members of the Supreme Court. With the exception of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in a key 1992 case helped sustain a woman’s right to choose abortion, the court’s other Catholic members are staunch opponents of abortion,’ and she would be the sixth. M’uh-huh.

‘Some organizations, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, forfeited US funding rather than accept the restrictions. Sotomayor dismissed claims that the policy violated free-speech rights.’ She has found in favor of anti-abortion protesters. She’s found in favor of not funding abortion organizations around the world — and get this, for those of you who think I’ve lost my mind. How many of you know who Bill Donohue is? Bill Donohue is president of the Catholic League. This guy is on television constantly defending the Catholic Church against smears everywhere they occur, be it in movies, in the news, in the music or what have you. And it’s said here (this is the Washington Times), ‘A prominent Catholic conservative who regularly criticizes liberal co-religionists for weak stances on abortion said [last week] he will be quietly rooting for Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be confirmed to the Supreme Court and said she may even be an improvement over retiring Justice David Souter.’

William Donohue ‘said that Judge Sotomayor’s record has more bright spots than conservative Catholics can reasonably expect to get from an appointee of President Obama. ‘If the Republicans are smart, they would not fight this one,’ he told The Washington Times in an interview.’ Hmm. Hmmmmm. What do I make of this? What I make of this is that there’s some people taking a look at Sonia Sotomayor from our side and maybe finding not that much to totally oppose her. There might be silver lining there. When you’ve got the president of the Catholic League who fights the definition of the church saying we might have a secret weapon here, and he’s talking about the life issue here. He’s talking about abortion. I mean, you have to perk up and listen to this.