Sotomayor a racist? Newt Gingrich takes it back.

It appears as if even Newt Gingrich is walking back from his insistence that Sotomayor is a racist.

Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker who has called Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist, backed away from those comments Wednesday but continued to question whether her philosophy qualified her to become the first Latino on the high court.

Gingrich had joined with conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in calling Sotomayor a racist after comments she made in 2001 comparing the judgment of Latinas and white men were widely circulated.

In a letter to supporters and in a posting on his website Wednesday, Gingrich said the use of the word “racist should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable."

"My initial reaction was strong and direct -- perhaps too strong and too direct," Gingrich said. "The sentiment struck me as racist, and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the nation's highest court have been critical of my word choice."

In other words fellow Republicans, perhaps some who still entertain the notion that it might be nice to be re-elected someday, realise that Gingrich and Limbaugh have been engaged in an utterly suicidal course of action which made the Republican party appear sexist and willing to read into Sotomayor's statement only the worst possible intent, ignoring the overall argument she was making.

So, Gingrich has, at last, stepped back from the precipice.

However, some things never change:

But Gingrich's change of heart did not sway Limbaugh. "I'm not retracting it," Limbaugh said Wednesday on his program.

"Now they may say 'Don't say it, Rush. Dial it back a little bit.' But nobody's saying I'm wrong," he said. "I mean, when she says that she'd do a better job than a white guy, what is it? It's racism. It's reverse racism, whatever, but it's still racism. She would bring a form of racism, bigotry to the court."

El Fatto never tires of being on the wrong side of every single issue. It's actually becoming rather endearing. Much in the way a slightly doddery uncle might make you smile at his flatulence.

And yes, lots of us have been saying that Rush is wrong.

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Tags: Limbaugh, Gingrich, Sotomayor, Supreme Court