Kabuki Inc.

There's this interesting dynamic where Senate Republicans are demurring from attacks on Sonia Sotomayor in public while urging their activists to keep them up behind the scenes. But the Raw Story has an even more interesting article up about who may really be behind the most extreme attacks:

Corporate interests posing as a grassroots conservative group are behind attacks on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, a RAW STORY investigation has found.

The Committee for Justice (CFJ), an astroturf group established by big business in July 2002 to create an appearance of popular support for President Bush’s judicial nominees, is now leading the effort to oppose the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court.

CFJ’s Executive Director Curt Levey has been sending out press releases and making media appearances to promote the theme that Sotomayor is racist and biased in her rulings, drawing his talking points largely from a speech in which she suggested that when it came to race and sex discrimination cases, it was possible that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences … would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

I knew Curt Levey was one of the instant bobbleheads from the conservative movement suddenly all over TV talking about Sotomayor. I didn't know his organization was a Big Business front group.

I'm wondering what they have to fear from Sotomayor, however. On this issue, her record doesn't appear to be all that different from the current construction of the Court, which is clearly tilted toward big business. Maybe it's just a reflexive partisan pose. But if there's something in Sotomayor's past that would actually make business tremble, I'd love to know what it is.