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In an interview with CNN Headline News anchor Robin Meade today, former president George H.W. Bush condemned the attacks by Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich on Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Bush said, “It doesn’t help the process to be out there name-calling.”

When asked what Sotomayor’s impact will be on the Supreme Court, Bush said, “I think she’d pull a ripcord just at the right time and make a very nice parachutist. I’m going to leave that to others to analyze, but she should be given a fair hearing. She should be accorded every courtesy that goes with her record as a judge and her aspirations to be a Supreme Court justice. And I have a feeling she will be confirmed, but again, I don’t go into that day in and day out.”

The now 85 year old former president condemned those Republicans who were calling Sotomayor a racist, “I like the way Sen. John Cornyn said it. I mean, he may vote for her, he may not. But he’s been backing away from these — backing off from those who use radical statements to describe her or to attribute things to her that may or may not be true. I mean, she was called by somebody a “racist.” Well, that’s not right. I mean, it’s not fair. It doesn’t help the process to be out there name-calling. So let them decide whether they want to vote for her or not, and get on with it.”

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The thing that struck me about Bush’s comments was that he sounded just like a president talking to Congress, with his let them decide and get on with it comment. The former president echoed the thoughts of most Senate Republicans when he dismissed charges that she is a racist. It is also interesting that as many in the right wing media are defending their extremism, George H.W. Bush would describe their attacks on Sotomayor as radical.

George H.W. Bush is the kind of Republican that Rush Limbaugh would seek to drum out of today’s GOP. He appointed Sonia Sotomayor to the US District Court, and his building of a true international effort for the Gulf War, that if tried in this day and age, would be mocked by the neo-cons in the GOP, so Happy Birthday Bush 41. I can’t help but wonder what you think of the state of your Republican Party today?