President Obama on Tuesday nominated federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic and third female U.S. Supreme Court justice if confirmed. Obama announced the nomination Tuesday morning in the East Room of the White House. “Thank you, Mr. President, for the most humbling honor of my life,” Sotomayor said. “My heart is bursting with gratitude,” she said. She gave special recognition to her mother, who was sitting in the audience. “I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences,” Sotomayor said. Obama called Sotomayor “an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice.” She “has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breath of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice,” he added. Obama said Sotomayor “would bring more experience on the bench and more varied experience on the bench than anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court had when they were appointed.” The president met with Sotomayor at the White House for an hour on Thursday, according to senior administration officials. He was impressed with Sotomayor’s personal story and professional qualifications after meeting her, but he did not immediately offer her the job, two senior administration sources added. Obama made his final decision Monday, the sources said.

It was pretty much assumed by all that Obama would be selecting a woman as his nominee but there was much speculation about which woman he would pick. As a Hispanic myself, it thrills me that there is a strong possibility that Sotomayor will join the US Supreme Court. I cannot for the life of me imagine what it must be like to get the call from the President informing you that you have been selected to join the Supreme Court. I am not familiar at all with Sotomayor’s record as a judge so I had to do some reading up on her credentials. If you, too, would like more information on Sotomayor’s legal experience you can read more about it after the jump …

Sotomayor, a 54-year-old judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was named a U.S. District Court judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, and was elevated to her current seat by President Clinton. Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, rose from humble beginnings at a housing project in the South Bronx and went on to attend Princeton University and Yale Law School. She has minimal personal assets compared with many of her judicial colleagues; a 2007 financial disclosure form showed her with a checking and savings account valued at between $50,000 and $115,000. Supporters say her appointment history, along with what they call her moderate-liberal views, would give her some bipartisan backing in the Senate. A senior White House official said that Sotomayor was “nominated by George Bush — then Bill Clinton — [and has] more judicial experience than anyone sitting on the court had at the time they were nominated.” Another senior administration official said that Obama “was looking for someone with a balance of skills: very, very smart; independent thinker; highly regarded for integrity and commitment to the law.” “He found all of those things with her, including his goal of selecting someone with the empathy factor — real world, practical experience and understanding of how the law affects real people.” But she has suffered through recent stinging criticism in the media and blogs from both the left and right over perceived — some defenders say invented — concerns about her temperament and intellect. As she has risen through the judicial ranks, Sotomayor increasingly has drawn the ire and opposition of conservatives. A majority of Republican senators opposed her elevation to the appellate court in 1998. However, an official with the Republican National Committee promised that the GOP will be equitable toward Sotomayor. “The Republicans are going to strike a tone that’s fair, that allows the vetting process to happen like it should, and that’s in stark contrast to how the Democrats dealt with Judge Roberts when you look back a couple years ago,” the official said, referring to the 2005 confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts. Conservatives point to, among other things, her authoring of a 2008 opinion supporting the city of New Haven, Connecticut’s decision to throw out the results of a firefighter promotion exam because almost no minorities qualified for promotions. The Supreme Court heard an appeal of the case in April; a final opinion is pending. “Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written,” said Wendy Long, counsel to the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network. “She thinks that judges should dictate policy and that one’s sex, race and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench. … She has an extremely high rate of her decisions being reversed, indicating that she is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court.” However, the senior White House official said Sotomayor has had “99 percent of her decisions” upheld by a higher court. Obama said Saturday he wants intellectual firepower and a common touch in the next Supreme Court justice and said he doesn’t “feel weighed down by having to choose … based on demographics.” Obama’s nominee will replace retiring Justice David Souter, who announced this month he would step down when the court’s current session ends this summer. There had been wide speculation that Obama would name a woman to the court, which has one female justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Interesting. There is still much more about her that I would like to read up on but she seems like an able nominee to me. I suspect that the Supreme Court nominee hearings will begin this Summer and that Sotomayor will have no problem passing muster in the Democratic controlled Senate.

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been on the job for nearly two weeks, but there’s always an excuse for a lavish celebration. [Yesterday] afternoon, in the gilded Benjamin Franklin room on State’s top floor, close friends and lawmakers watched her get publicly sworn in by Vice President Biden. The guests who nibbled on treats and drank wine and beer to the strains of violin music included Chevy Chase, the actor; former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Madeleine Albright; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.); and Governors John Corzine of new Jersey and Martin O’Malley of Maryland. Washington power player Vernon Jordan and Obama foreign policy aide Samantha Power — who had a very public spat with Clinton during the presidential campaign — also mingled among the several hundred guests. A cheer went up when Clinton walked into the room with her husband, former president Bill Clinton, her daughter Chelsea and her mother Dorothy Rodham. Before Biden began to administer the oath, some members of the crowd started chanting, “Get it right, get it right,” in reference to the botched oath originally administered to President Obama. “Never did I think, Madame Secretary, that I’d swear you in as secretary of state,” Biden said to laughter. “Never did I think I’d be sworn in as vice president.” Both Biden and Clinton had challenged Obama for the Democratic nomination, and Clinton also noted the irony. “As Joe laughingly referenced, neither one of us thought we’d be here,” she said. “Life has a funny way of unfolding, and politics is even stranger.” Clinton earned the biggest laugh and applause when she thanked her husband, resplendent in a red tie, after acknowledging her mother and daughter. “I am so grateful to him,” the former first lady said of the former president, “for a lifetime of [pause] all kinds of experiences — which have given me an extraordinary richness that I am absolutely beholden to and grateful for.” Clinton will begin her first day of public diplomacy Tuesday when she meets separately with the foreign ministers of Great Britain and Germany. The administration’s evolving policy on Iran will be high on the agenda because political directors of the six countries seeking to negotiate with Tehran will meet on Wednesday to consider their next steps. Clinton also must decide when and where she will make her first trip, a symbolically important mission. Diplomats in Asia say she is considering traveling to Japan, South Korea and China, and possibly Southeast Asia — an unusual itinerary for the top diplomat’s maiden voyage. The planning is still in the early stages, however, and the State Department has declined to comment on her plans.

I guess just because President Barack Obama had two swearing in ceremonies, Hillary had to have two of her own ;) I was able to watch this swearing in ceremony live on CNN and thought it was a fun, light-hearted affair. I cannot believe Hillary was so free with the jokes … her zinger on President Clinton was pretty funny. After the jump, if you so desire, you can check out video of Hillary’s swearing in ceremony yesterday afternoon …

… Woot! Next up, our new President takes his oath!

Joseph Biden’s wife Jill on Monday appeared to let slip a piece of choice political gossip, suggesting her husband was given a choice by Barack Obama to be vice president or secretary of state. Biden will be sworn into office on Tuesday as Obama’s second-in-command, and appeared to try to hush his wife as she made the comment on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. His office later put out a statement denying he had a choice of job. “Joe had a choice to be secretary of state or vice president,” Jill Biden said, prompting her husband to whisper “shhh” before her words were drowned out by cheers and applause. She went on to explain that she had worried about the impact of her husband being secretary of state on their family life. “I said, Joe, if you’re secretary of state, you’ll be away. (I’ll) see you at a state dinner once in a while. I said if you’re vice president, the entire family, because they worked so hard for the election, can be involved. They can come to our home. They can go to events. They can be with us all the time. And that’s what’s important to us.” Joseph Biden, trying to smooth over the awkward moment, then said he told Obama he would serve as vice president only if he was being selected for his judgement. “I know it’s going to sound corny. I could best serve there. The bottom line, Barack’s my friend. This is a partnership,” he said … Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander put out a statement trying to play down Jill Biden’s comments. “To be clear, president-elect Obama offered vice President-elect Biden one job only — to be his running mate and the vice president-elect was thrilled to accept the offer,” she said. “Like anyone who followed the presidential campaign this summer, Dr Jill Biden knew there was a chance that president-elect Obama might ask her husband to serve in some capacity and that, given his background, the positions of vice president and secretary of state were possibilities,” Alexander said. “Dr Biden’s point to Oprah today was that being vice president would be a better fit for their family because they would get to see him more and get to participate in serving more.”

LOL! I love Jill Biden! And I love that in the excitement of being in the presence of the great Oprah Winfrey the poor dear got flustered enough to let this bit of previously unsubstantiated information get out. No matter what the press release says about the incident, you know what Jill spilled was the way it went down ;)

In any event, Joe Biden is just about to take his oath of office … and then, soon after, it’s Barack Obama’s turn!

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Click HERE to see a whole slew of Election Night photos of the Obama family. I’m pretty sure that Tuesday November 4, 2008 is a day that millions of people will remember for the rest of their lives. Obvs it was a big night for the Obamas and I think it’s very cool that they are sharing their intimate (and prolly jittery) moments with the world. I suspect that the new First Family is going to be very open about their lives and will do everything they can to share their experiences with all of us. The site Change.gov has already launched and I understand there will be an official blog of the new President when he takes office. Leadership in this country looks like it’s about to take a giant leap forward of inclusion with the people. I can’t wait to see what’s in store in the coming months and years.

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