When asked about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s statement that a “wise Latina woman” makes a better judge than a white man, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs responded, “I think she’d say that her word choice in 2001 was poor.”

President Barack Obama took it a step further. He said he was “sure” Judge Sotomayor “would have restated it” if she had the chance to one again opine on race, gender and the law. And with that, it was official: The White House’s first — and so far only — line of defense against critics of Sotomayor’s controversial statement is that it was a one-time thing; an errant departure into radical identity politics by a mainstream jurist committed to strict race and gender neutrality.

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