Composting Consent

Nearly everyone agrees that Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, and most of those who ostensibly disagree with this proposition disagree only insofar as they hope that out of the miasma of half-baked accusations and innuendos something sufficiently controversial will arise to "derail" her nomination, i.e. to cause it to be withdrawn. But of course, the only way for the nomination to be withdrawn would be a revelation sufficiently damning to cast into doubt the possibility of her confirmation, which hardly seems forthcoming, and so the efforts of her opponents are odd in that they are almost entirely self-referential.

This morning on NPR, Juan Williams, who even more than fellow NPR commenter Cokie Roberts seems incapable of anything other than muddled paraphrasis, said that the Obama administration had not anticipated the "firestorm" that Sotomayor's comments (wise Latina, white dudes, etc.) would ignite. Aside from a severe underestimation of what it takes to make a firestorm, even a metaphorical one, the comment is most striking for being so palpably and obviously untrue. While the administration surely could not predict what precisely would ignite the Republican-driven and media-catalyzed opposition to the nominee, they obviously knew that some form of the ongoing false controversy was inevitable.

In the end she'll be confirmed, the specific, ridiculous content of the "debate" over her nomination will be forgotten, and all that will persist will be the vague recollection of controversy and opposition, preserving that most necessary and delicate public sensibility: that our media and government are divided and deliberative, that policy is made and persons chosen via argument and debate.