Rachel Maddow Takes on ‘Uncle Pat’ Buchanan for Racial Sotomayor Attack

America's Voice Blog

Posted 07/16/09 at 11:18pm

UPDATED: New Maddow video up top. AND it's "melanin" not "melatonin." Not enough coffee this morning... (H/T to Kai of KaiChang.net, who wrote: just fyi, "melatonin" is an animal hormone, I think you meant "melanin", the protein pigment which creates the "C" part of "POC" -- LOL!)

Rachel Maddow asks why "Uncle Pat" Buchanan is promoting a race-based attack on Sotomayor on MSNBC:

Kos, founder of the progressive blog Daily Kos, argued last night:

And to remind people why Buchanan has been unhinged about Sotomayor all week:

We’re going to have 135 million Hispanics in the United States by 2050, heavily concentrated in the southwest. The question is whether we’re going to survive as a country.

Yes, Pat, the country will survive the increase in melanin...

The bigger question is whether MSNBC will continue to seek out Uncle Pat's sophisticated racial commentary.

Today, Kos describes the rift happening within the GOP over the future of the party-- including growing concerns from key GOP leadership that Republicans need to improve their image with Latino voters:

Republicans appear to be heeding Buchanan's advice, more concerned about placating their shrinking regional white male base than in expanding their tent. Some Republicans are even concerned about that.

"Cornyn’s going to have to repair fences with Hispanics; they are going to be scrutinizing him a lot harder after the way he questioned Sotomayor," said Lionel Sosa, a Texas-based marketing consulting who has created Latino outreach programs for GOP candidates, including George W. Bush.

"I would advise him to be more careful," Sosa added. "He has a fine line to walk between satisfying the conservative base and not alienating Hispanic voters."

Too late.

Not too late, actually.

With Senator Schumer set to drop immigration reform legislation by Labor Day, as he says, the GOP will have the biggest opportunity in the forseeable future to repair -- or further damn-- their brand with Latino voters, who overwhelmingly consider immigration reform to be an issue of both great political and personal importance.