Sexist? Racist? Chill Out, GOP Pundits

The conservative chattering class needs to chill out about Sonia Sotomayor, writes Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post. Bloggers are frothing with rage over Sotomayor’s infamous comment that a Latina woman might make better decisions than a white man. “Could a white man get away with saying something comparable about a Latina? Of course not,” Parker writes. “After Latinas have run the world for 2,000 years, they won’t be able to say it ever again either.”

Sotomayor’s point was that a judge’s ethnicity and gender would affect her rulings. “Who doesn’t believe that?” asks Parker. In fact, she considers it a conservative position. “Radical-liberal types tend to fantasize that sex is not a difference that matters,” and everyone pretends the same about race. “Calling Sotomayor a sexist and racist…is an irrational rush to judgment, unbecoming ladies, gentlemen, scoundrels and scholars.” (More Kathleen Parker stories.)