Ok, so I have been saying for days that all this talk of Sotomayor being a racist is pointless. It is ludicrous, not to mention factually incorrect. It contributes absolutely nothing to the question of her confirmation. Regardless, Sotomayor (presumably at the behest of the White House) felt the need to address her comment that a Latina woman would come to a "better" conclusion than a white male. We went through her explanation yesterday on Nealz Nuze. The White House chalked it up to a misspeak. Either way, the comment isn't racist.

But now here's the test. Yet another quote from Sotomayor has surfaced. This one comes from a speech she made in 1994 and was disclosed to Republican Senators during her confirmation for the Court of Appeals in 1998. Here's the quote:

"Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that "a wise old man and a wise old woman reach the same conclusion in dueling cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes the line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, if Prof. Martha Minnow is correct, there can never be a universal definition of 'wise.' Second, I would hope that a wise woman with the richness of her experience would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion."

So this time, we don't get the issue of race in the mix, but we do get the issue of gender. As I said, this will be a test. Can the Republicans just cool it already and focus on more important issues when it comes to this nominee, or are they going to take this quote and run with it as well?