Advise and consent

It is obvious Republicans can't stop the Sonia Sotomayor Express. She undoubtedly will be confirmed as a justice of the Supreme Court by the Senate in its advise and consent role. However, The Hound is troubled.

During Monday's opening session in the confirmation process before the Senate Judiciary Committee, newly seated Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., told Sotomayor that she was "the most experienced Supreme Court nominee in 100 years.'' The Hound heard Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., say the same thing earlier. But is this actually true?

A century is a long time and The Hound thinks that while Appeals Court Judge Sotomayor, the first Hispanic nominated to the Supreme Court, is eminently qualified, she certainly is not the most "experienced" nominee in 100 years. The Hound will cede a dozen, but a hundred?

Democrats like Franken and Durbin must have overlooked such legendary legal minds as Justices Louis Brandeis, William O. Douglas, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Hugo Black, Benjamin Cardozo, Felix Frankfurter, and John Marshall Harlan and his grandson, John Marshall Harlan II. Indeed, some of these men also led inspirational and hard-scrabble lives, along with having varied life experiences, as has Judge Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican who grew up in the New York City projects.

So while the newest justice-to-be may be a fit for this judicial opening, let's not fawn over her as Democrats appear to be doing.