linked below (original link here) —

for all that post’s merits, I think he’s dead wrong on this:

I discuss below the four most probable lines of attack that committed ideologues are likely to advance, but to my mind basic political considerations make it very unlikely that mainstream Republican politicians will vocally join the criticism.

No way. I mean, this might be true if “mainstream Republican politicians” (I assume he means the typical GOP senator) had any control of the Republican discourse. But of course they don’t, which is precisely why Republicans are in the bind they’re in.

All the organs of Republican opinion are going to go HARD after Sotomayor. They would have gone after any nominee, but Sotomayor they will go after viciously, because their dislike for her is visceral. All that identity politics stuff in that speech she gave — we will hear about that nonstop. They will try to use this pick to racialize Obama, to make him into a Quota King.

It will be impossible for GOP Senators not to be pulled into that discourse, no matter how politically suicidal (long term, with Latinos) such a decision might be.