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• Friday, May 29, 2009 12:05 PM

  Making "teaching moments" out of lemons

  While conservatives say they know they have little chance of defeating Mr. Obama’s choice because Democrats control the Senate, they say they hope to mount a fight that could help refill depleted coffers and galvanize a movement demoralized by Republican electoral defeats.

  “It’s an immense opportunity to build the conservative movement and identify the troops out there,” said Richard A. Viguerie, a conservative fund-raiser. “It’s a massive teaching moment for America.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/us/politics/17conserve.html?ref=politics

  The GOP will enlarge its tent by providing a coherent alternative to Obama's view of the world and convincing voters it is the better view.

  The Sotomayor hearings will be a good place to start. Call it a “teaching moment” - and Republicans have as much to learn as anybody else.

  http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090528/EDITORIAL/905280347

  Vision America President Dr. Rick Scarborough said President Obama's nomination of 2nd. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court "should be a teaching moment for the American people on the dangers of a runaway judiciary."

  http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/3221810484.html

  William Kristol: The debate over her confirmation could be an interesting "teaching moment"--a politically important teaching moment--for constitutionalists who would beg to differ from Sotomayor's vision of the appropriate role of the federal judiciary.

  http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/05/kristol_on_sotomayor_the_supre_1.asp

  And in spite of his conviction that conservatism "stands unequivocally against justice as empathy -- and unequivocally for the principle of blind justice," this is Krauthammer's advice to Republicans (from the article Glenn links to):

  Make the case for individual vs. group rights, for justice vs. empathy. Then vote to confirm Sotomayor solely on the grounds -- consistently violated by the Democrats, including Sen. Obama -- that a president is entitled to deference on his Supreme Court nominees, particularly one who so thoroughly reflects the mainstream views of the winning party. Elections have consequences.

  Vote Democratic and you get mainstream liberalism: a judicially mandated racial spoils system and a jurisprudence of empathy that hinges on which litigant is less "advantaged."

  A teaching moment, as liberals like to say. Clarifying and politically potent. Seize it.

  —EJ Read EJ's other letters
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