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As the confirmation ritual of Sonia Sotomayor continues to play out, it is becoming grimly apparent that the only relevant issue, her worthiness (or more accurately, her total lack thereof) as a guardian of the Constitution, will be no more of a consideration for Republicans than it ever was for Barack Obama. Flowery rhetoric and her heart-wrenching biography notwithstanding, if Obama ever had any concern whatsoever for the nation's founding charter, he never would have nominated a radical judicial activist like Sotomayor in the first place.

Among Republicans, the big controversy on which the fate of the nation (or at least the electoral fortunes of some spineless career politicians) rests, is whether or not it is appropriate to deem Sotomayor's blatantly racist comments as "racist." Sadly, Republicans are once again running scared from the honest characterization of Sotomayor as unacceptably skewed in her adjudications as a result of blatant racial prejudices. In this poisoned age of "political correctness," it is obvious that only conservative white males will ever be assessed on such grounds.

Yet with the integrity of the Constitution likely facing a fatal final assault, supposedly stalwart conservatives such as Senator John Cornyn of Texas believe their time and energy is best spent castigating Rush Limbaugh for focusing on a remark by Sotomayor that clearly would have ended the political career of any white male public figure.

In a 2001 speech at the University of California Berkeley, Sotomayor asserted "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the riches of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." In a later decision that plainly reflects a consistency of such thought, she determined that minorities deserved promotion over white applicants in the New Haven Connecticut Fire Department, based solely on their race.

Sotomayor's personal beliefs on the topic of race might not seem to directly undermine her ability to uphold her duties as a Supreme Court justice. However, the New Haven Fire Department case, and in particular the flimsy basis of her opinion, indicate beyond any reasonable doubt that she is perfectly willing to mete out grave injustice provided she believes it can advance the race issue. Had her interest in righting racial injustice been at all counterbalanced by a reverence for constitutional principle, she should have run for a position on the city council of New Haven, which would have been a far more appropriate venue to alter its hiring practices.

No Democrats, and appallingly few Republicans, are even willing to contend that this background constitutes ample reason to summarily disqualify her as a Supreme Court nominee. However, it should do precisely that. And any who contend otherwise, rather than being treated as reasoned and temperate in their commentary, ought to ever after be branded as willing to sacrifice the inviolability of the Constitution to the political fads of the moment. One can support true constitutional law or one can remain in the good graces of the liberal media/political cabal. But one cannot do both.

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