Sotomayor Confirmation: The Tag Team of Kyl and Graham

Great shot from Getty’s Mark Wilson capturing the dynamics today between the Sonia Sotomayor and the tag team of Senators Graham and Kyl.

Perhaps my repulsion was enhanced by listening to the lecturing and general condescension on the radio. (Really, Graham had the gall to try and bait Sotomayor into reciting the so-called “Latina Woman quote” — and from memory, no less?) As a result, it was only fitting to discover these Senators sharing this frame-within-a-frame, the tilted screen highlighting the fixed, turned-down mouth of the outlandishly-inflated Kyl alongside Graham, this perennial sidekick, alternating between thinly-disguised patronization (see above) and pure haughtiness.

Of course, what the photo primarily does is anticipate how the attacks net out, Sotomayor remaining largely peripheral to this right-wing, white male sideshow.

(image: Mark Wilson/Getty Images. Second day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings July 14, 2009. Washington, D.C.)