Axelrod on Sotomayor

On PBS NewsHour yesterday:

DAVID AXELROD: Judge Sotomayor has just a spectacular story. You know, I think no one in our memory has had the credentials that she brings to the court. ... [she] has a great personal story. Raised in the South Bronx, her father died when she was young. Her mother was a nurse, raised her.

No offense to Judge Sotomayor, but her personal story is no greater than mine or anyone else's. I know America has a long history of giving extra credit to people who were poor or "disadvantaged" in some way, but it's utter nonsense, and certainly no serious qualification for the Supreme Court of the United States. But Axelrod was just getting started with the crazy (I help him out with the words in brackets, because he apparently has trouble remembering what Sotomayor actually said):

JUDY WOODRUFF: Some conservatives ... are citing a statement she made in, I guess, 2005 where she said Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal are, quote, "where policy is made." How is that going to be explained?

DAVID AXELROD: Well, I think it doesn't need to be explained if anybody reads her broader comments from that event at Duke. ... she was explaining the difference between the District Court and the Appeals Court. And what she said was the Appeals Court is where [ed: policy is made] uh, where where [ed: policy is made] legal theory, essentially, where [ed: policy is made] these uh these [ed: policies are made] more um [ed: policy is made] involved constitutional issues go, whereas the trial court, where she also served, was [ed: not where policy is made] ...

And continuing:

JUDY WOODRUFF: There was another comment that I'm already reading conservatives pointing to. Quote, she said, I guess, in 2002, "A wise Latina woman with a richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life when each is acting as a judge."

DAVID AXELROD: Well, I think what she's saying is that you are [ed: more likely to reach a better conclusion if you're a wise Latina than a white male] -- that you bring to the court not just your legal experience, which in her case is vast, but your personal experience and your life experience.

Just as Obama's favorite Supreme Court justices, like Stephen Breyer, explicitly ignore the Constitution for some "broader" purpose, Axelrod ignores what Sotomayor actually said to look at her "broader" meaning.