A LATINA JUDGE AND A COUNTRY BUILT BASICALLY BY WHITE FOLKS

Buchanan: "This has been a country built basically by white folks"

Given Judge Sotomayor's distinguished resume and impressive performance at this week's hearings, the Senate Republicans likely to vote against her confirmation are struggling to defend their position with any level of specificity and honesty.

Senator Mitch McConnell, for example, plans to vote against Sotomayor because of her "alarming lack of respect for the notion of equal justice" and her "insufficient willingness to abide by the judicial oath."

But Pat Buchanan, in the video above, is articulating what some of the opposition is thinking, but too afraid to say out of fear of alienating potential voters.

Buchanan is voicing the backwards view that many still cling to: if a person's gender and ethnicity is considered in the selection process, she must inherently be unqualified for the position.

Again, while I find nearly everything Buchanan is saying abhorrent, it's another example of a circumstance when I prefer that bigots be overt and honest instead of covert and disingenuous.

--Junichi