WASHINGTON -- Rush Limbaugh called her a "reverse racist." The conservative Judicial Confirmation Network said she carried a "personal political agenda" and should be blocked from the Supreme Court.
But underneath the bombast that has become a predictable part of Washington's court fights, the nomination Tuesday of Sonia Sotomayor to the high court brought a surprising development: The Republican senators who will actually vote on her were not following the activists' script.
Instead, GOP senators offered muted, sometimes admiring, responses, and seemed to be taking their cues from quieter voices within the party who cautioned that opposing the country's first Latina Supreme Court nominee would amount to political suicide.
As Republican leaders held their fire, Democrats such as Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland warned that it was "too early" to predict if conservatives would go all-out to keep Sotomayor off the court.
In a phone interview from Croatia, where he is attending a conference, Cardin praised Sotomayor's "very impressive" experience and said her personal background - raised in a Bronx, N.Y., housing project by Puerto Rican parents - was "great for diversity on the court."
Some Republican strategists are telling senators that to attack Sotomayor is to waste an opportunity for the GOP to appear welcoming to Latino voters, many of whom turned away from the party because of conservative support for immigration restrictions and a hard-line stance against legalizing undocumented workers.
"A lot of Republicans are worried that [fighting the Sotomayor nomination] could be the last straw when it comes to the party's ability to reach the Hispanic community," said Robert de Posada, a Latino GOP strategist who said he is advising Republican staff aides on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Republicans are in a very awkward position."
Lionel Sosa, a Texas-based Republican ad-maker who designed Latino outreach for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, said opposing Sotomayor "would be one more nail in the Republicans' image coffin in terms of Latino voters."
"The worst thing the Republicans can do is oppose her," Sosa said.
The GOP's dilemma on Sotomayor is the latest example of the party's struggle over how to reinvent itself at a time that its voter base is increasingly dominated by Southern, conservative white men.
