How Republicans missed their chance with Sonia Sotomayor

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are down to their last chance to make the case that there are serious questions about Sonia Sotomayor’s fitness for the Supreme Court. One of the things they will do is stress a subject they have inexplicably downplayed so far: Sotomayor’s 12 years of service on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education fund.

In the her first two days of testimony, Sotomayor appeared reluctant do discuss her time with PRLDEF (commonly referred to as “Pearl-Def”). When questioned about it by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday, she minimized her role in the organization, especially when Graham asked about a PRLDEF lawsuit that compared the denial of taxpayer-funded abortions to slavery.