Kenneth Starr Praises, Offers Support for Sonia Sotomayor

Kenneth Starr continues to express praise for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. It is difficult to miss the irony of Starr, an icon of infamy among Democrats, endorsing Sonia Sotomayor, whom many conservatives view as an icon of infamy. But as a law school Dean (at a school trying to climb in the rankings) Starr cannot afford to alienate powerful judges -- or their supporters.

Starr made very generous statements regarding Sotomayor during an appearance on Fox in late May. Here are some clips from the transcript:

But the key is, what was her record as a judge? And her record as a judge, from everything that I've seen, is a very fine record.

She's been to our campus twice over the last couple of years, and she's worked very hard with incoming judicial law clerks. She's really very energetic, committed to the system. But I will say this. One of the most characteristics of a Justice is that she be humble, that she be modest in her approach to the Constitution. And that, I think, is what the confirmation hearings are really going to come down to. . . .

[Empathy is] an important quality for judges sitting in family court and the like. But my word, when we're talking about the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, we don't want someone who has an attitude of harshness. But on the other hand, we don't want to have someone who's attitude is the plaintiff always wins or the defendant should always lose.

So evenhandedness, fairness, impartiality -- those are the enduring characteristics and qualities. But when it comes to interpreting that document, those 20 pages and then the amendments, we want someone, it seems to me, who is going to always be modest, always listening carefully to the lawyers, listening carefully to her colleagues, and so forth. And I have no reason to believe that Justice, if she is confirmed, Sotomayor will not be that kind of judge.

In addition to these statements, the Mother Jones blog reports that Starr offered himself as a reference for Sotomayor at a luncheon today:

[Starr] said that he "thinks very well of [Sotomayor]." He noted that he has not written any official endorsement letter for Sotomayor but that no had asked him to do so—suggesting he would if requested. Starr said that he has told more than one US senator that he supports her nomination, but he wouldn't identify which senators he has spoken to about Sotomayor.

With Mel Martinez, Laura Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Kenneth Starr supporting Sotomayor, it seems that this process is moving to cruise control.