Comrade Liu? GOP obstructs 9th Circuit Appeals Court nominee

On May 19th, the Senate successfully filibustered the nomination of Goodwin Liu to 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. This effectively ended his nomination, as he withdrawn his name from consideration on May 25, resulting in a clear victory for the Republicans.

Goodwin Liu is a qualified nominee for a judgeship: a brilliant Berkeley constitutional scholar, a widely regarded jurist who had been praised by conservatives including Kenneth Starr (Lewinsky case prosecutor) and John Yoo( proponent of torture), he has broad bipartisan support. Obviously, his qualifications were not on trial here; this was merely one of battles in the GOP's ongoing war with President Obama. On display during the hearings were several things, not least the Republicans’ hypocrisy. Previously declaring that filibustering a judicial nominee is unconstitutional, the GOP now unanimously embrace the tactic in opposing Liu’s nomination. They justify this hypocrisy by demonizing the candidate: Sen. Charles Grassley(R-Iowa) accused Liu of desiring America to be more like “communist-run China.”

That comment is not only inappropriate, it borders on racism. Liu=Chinese name. Consciously or not, Sen. Grassley’s remark reflects a wider trend towards racism among the conservatives.  Many of the comments I read on the conservative blog Big Government (http://biggovernment.com/tfitton/2011/06/02/senate-rejects-liu-nomination/) shows this. Sample comments: “Sorry Liu. It looks like there is nothing left to do except move back to China where good little commies go far.” Another says: “Thanx Gawd[sic]. His full name should be Liu Mao Marx.” And one of the most offensive of all: “Obama is following Bush's lead in outsourcing jobs that require no moral compass to Asians - a people who see life as cheap… Bush had some pet Asian that gave him some patina of legitimacy for torture as you may recall…You can bet they will use some Asian to give the order to ransack your house - they have no real connection to our values. ”

While not representative of all, these comments clearly show that racism has been institutionalized in the Republican Party. Had the nominee been white, would they accuse him of “making America Nazi-like?” Obviously not.

I am not a law student, I am no lawyer, I cannot judge the validity of Goodwin Liu’s legal arguments.  But I do know hypocrisy and racism when I see it.