A New Race Card
Will Democrats target a Hispanic judicial nominee?

By NR’s John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru
May 18, 2001 3:55 p.m.

riting on The New Republic's website, Peter Beinart, the magazine's editor, urges Democrats to "go after" Miguel

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Estrada, one of President Bush's nominees for the D.C. Circuit. Beinart's point is that Democrats have invested so heavily in identity politics that they find it difficult to oppose "female and non-white conservatives"; nominating such people is now a Bush strategy. Hence Beinart's counsel. He writes, "Going after Estrada would send the one message that really matters: that when the White House chooses its Supreme Court picks, it must compromise ideologically, not demographically."

Does Beinart realize what he's saying here? That Estrada should draw especially intense opposition from Democrats because he's Hispanic? That would send a message, all right, but maybe not one that will help the Democrats.

Vox Pop
Moderates are fed up with an increasingly right-wing Republican party, reports Anna Quindlen in her latest Newsweek column. Longtime followers of Quindlen's oeuvre will recognize this theme as a hardy perennial. But this time she has evidence: two real, live voters who have left the GOP. Two. Specifically, a New York lawyer and a department-store heiress. Somebody better call Karl Rove real quick.

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