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Official White House photo by Pete Souza,courtesy White House Flickr stream
Despite that Hispanic support for the GOP has sunk to new single-digit lows, Republicans on Capitol Hill are gearing up for a campaign to discredit the confirmation of Hispanic judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, according to the Colorado Independent.
In one month, support for the GOP among Hispanics has fallen from an already anemic 11 percent to 8 percent, according to a poll released Monday by Research 2000, which was contracted by the left-leaning DailyKos to conduct nonpartisan polling. As late as April 9, it was at 17 percent.
Meanwhile, Republicans are stepping up their criticism of Sotomayor, who riled conservatives with her comments from a 2001 speech in which she said that a "wise Latina woman" might be in a better position to make good judgements than a white male.
Roll Call reports that on Tuesday, Republicans fired the first salvo in the Senate-floor debate on her qualifications, saying they take particular exception to the view -- shared by Sotomayor and President Obama -- that "empathy" should be among the traits of a qualified judge.
"When there is empathy toward one, is it not prejudice toward the other?" said Judiciary ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala), during a Senate-floor speech on Tuesday, according to Roll Call.
Republicans also criticized Sotomayor for serving as an officer with a civil rights group called the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which they consider to be "far left" and "militant."
Democrats are defending her vigorously, saying she should be judged on the basis of her long record in the legal profession, not on outside interests and statements.