Bush 41: Lay Off Sotomayor

Calling Sonia Sotomayor racist for her now-infamous “wise Latina” remark “doesn't help the process,” former president George H.W. Bush tells CNN. "I don't know her that well but I think she's had a distinguished record on the bench and she should be entitled to fair hearings,” he says. Bush 41 nominated Sotomayor to serve as a federal district court judge in 1991.

“You're out there name-calling,” Bush says, referring to influential conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, who jumped on the Supreme Court nominee’s comment. Instead, “let them decide who they want to vote for and get on with it." Lawmakers should look to Sen. John Cornyn, Bush adds. “He may vote for it, he may not. But he's backing off from those radical statements to describe her.”