Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine suggested on Tuesday that opposition from Republican senators to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor -- along with the Republican National Committee's failure to attend a major Latino-issue forum -- will seriously hurt the party with Hispanic voters. "I find it puzzling that a group with the great credentials of the Council of La Raza would invite both parties to send their chairmen and that the RNC didn't send their chair," Kaine told the Huffington Post in a brief phone interview. "They could have had somebody else here. And with the vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, with the exception of Senator Graham, every Republican voting against Judge Sotomayor, I just don't get that as well." The Virginia governor's comments were part of an emerging line of attack from Democratic operatives, casting the Republican Party as insensitive to the issues that drive Hispanic voters. On Tuesday, Kaine spoke at the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the country. While he was sprinkling in a bit of Spanish into his remarks, his counterpart Michael Steele was far away. The RNC Chairman, his staff explained, was at the committee's summer meeting, which started this week in California. "We certainly did make many efforts on behalf of the RNC to get a surrogate there but we were unable to do so," explained Gail Gitcho, Steele's press secretary "The RNC remains committed to growing and expanding its Latino coalition." Gitcho insisted that the RNC couldn't get a Republican governor to fill in for Steele in time. Officials at La Raza, however, were not so understanding, telling The Plum Line's Greg Sargent: "The Republican Party not being here may demonstrate a lack of commitment to our community." Certainly, the GOP's already-struggling Hispanic outreach wasn't helped by the fact that on Tuesday, six of the seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against Sotomayor -- two of whom (Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Orin Hatch of Utah) had never voted against a Supreme Court nominee in their entire careers. The one Republican senator in support, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, was all but pleading with his GOP colleagues to consider the electoral ramifications of their vote as he cast his. "We are 200 and something years old as a nation," Graham said. "This is the first Latino woman in the history of the United States to be selected for the Supreme Court. Now that is a big deal. I would not have chosen her, but I understand why President Obama did." It doesn't get much easier for the GOP's efforts to woo Latino voters into their tent. One of the emerging subtexts to the current health care debate remains how the Hispanic community will be impacted by reform. While the topic of covering illegal immigrants remains a thorny one that neither party has shown the will to tackle, it remains obvious that Hispanics stand the most to gain from an overall increase in insurance coverage. A recent Gallup study revealed that more than 41 percent of Hispanic Americans are currently uninsured, far more than any other segment of the U.S. population. Passing legislation that lowers that number could have real ramifications in future elections. "We don't think about it in those terms," said Kaine. "But you can do the political calculation and see it that way. The reason to be urgent and talk to La Raza about it is because, as you point out, the statistics of a lack of health care are so much larger in the Latino community than in others." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/28/kaine-warns-of-gop-troubl_n_246573.html
Just what we need... as if there aren't enough damned special interests that demand pampering, now the self-appointed leaders (who chooses the leadership of "The Council of La Raza"? What gives them the right to speak for 40-50 million people?) of all the different ethnic and racial groups get to cry loudly for attention. You know that groups like La Raza and NAACP are not actually in the business of achieving a color-blind society, right? If that happened they'd be out of business, just like the NRA would be out of business if we went 5-10 years without anybody mentioning the assault weapons ban. They feed off ethnic conflict, and at this rate there will be much more of it to come.
Obama has 99 % of the black vote,likely to have 55 % of the women vote and 70% of the Latino vote.2 term President I'm sure the Dem's will remind women that he supports their reproductive rights and put the 2nd female Justice on the Supreme court and the Repubs were against it
"You know that groups like La Raza and NAACP are not actually in the business of achieving a color-blind society, right?" You know that the right wing Christians that the republicans depend upon are not actually in the business of walking the path of Jesus Christ, right?
Not surprising that the Dems feel the need to go on the attack. The fact they are doing this with over a year to go before the mid terms says a lot. It's not like they will have a really positive record to run on.
When the klannish played the social morality issues to get the Christian right's vote, it sure wasn't about Bush's glorious record... Just politics as usual. What went around is now coming around for the klannish...
Wow, I must have touched a nerve. Bush isn't here anymore. Obama is. Clear? Good PS: It's always fun to watch a train wreck.
La Raza (The race, the klan with a tan, etc.) does not have great credentials! (âPor La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada") âPor La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada". Just remember that phrase when you refer to the republicans as the Klannish, though you were probably chanting it at the last FARCE OF JULY celebration that your local Democrat party was sponsoring.