There are 179 Judges in the Federal Court of Appeals alone. There are 94 Federal District Courts, the number of judgeships allotted to each district is set forth in Title 28 of the U.S. Code, Section 133 - all of which had to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In the federal system the President has thousands of choices. Add State benches, and we have tens of thousands of choices - just of Judges. So, there clearly are plenty of potential nominees. The question now is just this: Is Judge Sotomayor qualified to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court? It really doesn't matter how many other choices the President might have made.

A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.

Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich