Sotomayor Resigns From All-Woman Club
Because of pressure from Republicans, Sonia Sotomayor has resigned from Belizean Grove, the women’s group for high achievers.
In a letter to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the federal appeals court judge says she is convinced the club does not practice “invidious discrimination” and that her membership in it did not violate judicial ethics.
But she says she didn’t want questions about it to “distract anyone from my qualifications and record.”
Belizean Grove is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the all-male Bohemian Grove (r), the white, patrician, all-male Republican club that has hosted every GOP president since Calvin Coolidge and many other, mostly right-wing members of the ruling class. Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker explains the difference between an all-male club like Bohemian Grove and a group for women who have not been part of the ruling class:
The reason why Sotomayor’s club is likely to present her with little problem is that the Senators will understand that it’s helpful for women to have that kind of support network, because even now women are just establishing themselves in male-dominated institutions. (Like, say, the Supreme Court—where 112 of the 114 Justices have been men.) But it is a different standard.
David Gergen resigned from the Bohemian Club in 1993 when he was a presidential advisor to Bill Clinton, even though he never had to do such an about-face when he was in the Nixon Ford and Reagan administrations.
Chances are that, given the Bohemian Club’s weird rituals and urinating on redwoods, the club from which Judge Sotomayor unfortunately resigned had a more dignified nature.
Smart move, now the GOP will have to find something else to quibble about.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Because of pressure from Republicans, Sonya Sotomayor has resigned from Belizean Grove, the women’s group for high achievers.
She has no backbone!
Serious though. It’s too bad that she was pressured on this one. Nothing wrong with all mens groups or all womens groups.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Why the heck is Sotomayor still an appointee?
Open the hearing, hold the vote, bang the gavel and hand the woman her robe, and if the republikkkans don’t like it let them go cry and whine and moan on FNN.
Bipartisanship? Bend over and see how you like some old-fashioned republikkkan-style bipartisanship.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Chances are that, given the Bohemian Club’s weird rituals and urinating on redwoods,
Sheesh, you really are a city boy. Taking a whiz in the great outdoors is not all that odd.
How else are the fellow kooks in one’s secret kook club supposed to know whose tree is whose?
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
June 20th, 2009 at 2:44 am
that’s funny…but I’ll agree she has no spine. If I was her I’d tell them all to go suck it and join another all-womens club.
I remember hearing a story about Augusta National when Martha Burke got into a pissing competition with Hootie Johnson (I think it’s Johnson, he was the president of Augusta National) It eventually led to The Masters being televised without commercial breaks for 2 years (absolutely the best two years of the Masters ever, thank you Martha Burke!)
Somebody asked a member of Augusta National how long they could support the Masters without advertisers, to answer that question the member said something to this effect. “I’m worth 200 million dollars, now look at this room of men, I’m the least rich of everyone here, we have no real need of sponsors, we could host this tournament indefinitely”
I don’t know what that has to do with the topic at hand, but I always thought that was an interesting story.
craig7120 Reply:
June 20th, 2009 at 4:14 am
LOL, no women members I believe was the issue, although I could be wrong. I backed Hootie on that issue and still do. Our clubhouse when I was a kid didnt allow girls or grownups. We built it and furnished it, it was our club. I guess thats why I like the movie ’sandlot’ so similar I thought they copied from us.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:56 pm