Sotomayor: Wealthy Member of Power Elite

We keep hearing about Sonia Sotomayor's upbringing, that compelling story.

When Obama introduced her on Tuesday, he said, "Born in the South Bronx, she was raised in a housing project."

I guess that depends on what the meaning of "raised" is.

Obama misled Americans about Sotomayor in that he gave an incomplete picture of her life.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There are two sides to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor: a Latina from a blue-collar family and a wealthy member of America's power elite.

The White House portrays Sotomayor as a living image of the American dream, though its telling of the rags-to-riches story emphasizes the rags, a more politically appealing narrative, and plays down the riches.

...In speeches, Sotomayor has harkened back to her and her brother's beginnings in a poor Bronx neighborhood, roots that President Barack Obama highlighted in introducing her this week.

...Yet Sotomayor did not live her entire childhood in a housing project in the South Bronx—she spent most of her teenage years in a middle-class neighborhood, attending private school and winning scholarships to Princeton and then Yale.

And Sotomayor's life and lifestyle after law school largely resemble the background of many lawyers who rise to powerful positions in Washington.

She climbed her way up through New York's Democratic power structure boosted by its ultimate brokers over those years—Gov. Mario Cuomo, Mayor Ed Koch, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. That's the access of a partner in a corporate law firm, not a kid from the South Bronx.

She now earns more than $200,000 a year and owns a condominium in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood of million-dollar-plus homes. Her brother, Dr. Juan Sotomayor, is a physician in North Syracuse, N.Y., whose practice doesn't accept Medicaid or Medicare—programs for the poor and elderly—according to its Web site.

Sotomayor said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."

As it turns out, most of Sotomayor's experiences mirror those of rich, powerful, white males.

She has spent the majority of her life as a wealthy member of America's power elite.

Her physician brother, Dr. Juan Sotomayor, doesn't accept Medicare or Medicaid, government programs to provide health care to the elderly and the poor. Why would he reject those people? Why would he not treat them?

Obama described Sonia Sotomayor, "And even as she has accomplished so much in her life, she has never forgotten where she began, never lost touch with the community that supported her."

She may not have completely lost touch with the community that supported her, but she certainly doesn't live there anymore. She's lost touch at least a little bit.

I think it's a mistake for the White House and the Obama mouthpieces in the lib media to only emphasize the rags of her rags-to-riches story. It's dishonest.