Suddenly Silent Sonia

By Ralph Alter

Apparently, Sonia Sotomayor got the Joe Biden memo. Normally ebullient, the SCOTUS nominee has suddenly gone Silent Cal on us: "She didn't even clear her throat," said one photographer after the mute judge popped in to see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The controversial nominee will have to persist to ascend to the Coolidge level of reserve.

Coolidge's terseness became legendary. He could be "silent in five languages," a contemporary asserted. A favorite joke had a pretty young woman approaching the president to explain that she had bet a friend she could make him say more than two words. "You lose," Coolidge replied...When Dorothy Parker heard in 1933 that Coolidge had just died, she archly inquired, "How could they tell?"

Coolidge's reticence seemed inherent to his personality. Judge Sotomayor, however she chooses to comport herself during this period of extensive media scrutiny, seems a bit too feisty to be kept on Obama's leash. Joseph Curl's report in the Washington Post, however, suggests the current arrangement may be at the White House's behest.

She was shepherded through the Senate by Stephanie Cutter, the Treasury Department's communications director, picked for the job by the White House, but it was unclear whether she forbade the nominee from actually speaking.

With all the discipline displayed by the Obama campaign, one would think this administration would be able to avoid the flurry of unflattering media resulting from the blithering of Biden, Napolitano and now Sonia Sotomayor.

It certainly makes for lively entertainment. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker: If you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, please step up to this microphone.

Ralph Alter blogs at Right on Target