The Senate Judiiciary Committee has released the witness list for Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings next week, and suprise surprise! Testifying for Republicans will be Frank Ricci, the name plaintiff in the now-infamous Connecticut firefighter case in which Republicans have accused Sotomayor of sanctioning “reverse racism.” What he has to offer about Sotomayor’s qualifications for the bench seems pretty limited, but we in the media can only hope Ricci will liven up what promises to be a pretty perfunctory proceeding. (Sadly, the Republicans don’t seem to have invited that nunchuck guy, who also has a bone to pick with Sotomayor.)
Democrats plan to counter such testimony with witnesses of their own, most notably, former Major League Baseball pitcher David Cone. Cone was one of the beneficiaries of Sotomayor’s decision ending the baseball players’ strike. Presumably Democrats are thinking that Cone will mitigate whatever nasty things Ricci has to say about Sotomayor’s view of the white male.
(Hat tip to The BLT.)