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Obama Loses 'Empathy' Line After GOP Sullies Phrase

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted May 28, 2009 12:58 PM CDT

(Newser) – “Empathy” was a key part of President Obama’s vocabulary when he first started talking about his Supreme Court nominee, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times, but the word has disappeared. “Conservatives have hijacked empathy and turned it into an epithet,” Stolberg writes. When introducing Sonia Sotomayor, Obama spoke in “long-winded phrases” that can’t “be reduced into a convenient buzzword for the opposition.”

Empathy—which Sen. Orrin Hatch called it “a code word for an activist judge”—goes hand in hand with “feelings,” which the Republican opposition worries Sotomayor might act upon. Chuck Grassley swore that the Senate Judiciary Committee would ensure that she applies “the law, not personal politics, feelings or preferences.” “In short,” Stolberg writes, “it is acceptable for Obama’s candidate to be an empathetic person, but not an empathetic judge.”

[Images (3)]

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Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor smiles as President Barack Obama applauds. (AP Photo)

President Barack Obama gives a kiss on the cheek as he announces federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee to the Supreme Court. (AP Photo)

Vice president Joe Biden applauds Judge Sonia Sotomayor. (AP Photo)

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Empathy is all about your feelings and your emotions, and I think most people expect a judge to set aside personal feelings and emotion. - Ed Gillespie, former Bush aide

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