Does opposing Sotomayor make you a racist/sexist?

Today, Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Clearly no member of the public fully knows and understands her yet. The entire GOP has said as much in their public statements, universally stating that they will give her a full and fair analysis first. I too have yet to develop a fully formed opinion of her.

One thing on which I have formed an opinion is all of this preemptive talk about Republican Senators and other members of the GOP being racist or sexist if they oppose her. It hasn't just annoyed me, it has infuriated me. This is the same type of crap that happened when anyone criticized Candidate Obama - they were branded a racist under the argument that they were degrading him because of his race, which of course is absurd and was routinely shut down by Obama himself. This preemption helped to chill out any valid negative opinions of Obama, and thus contributed to his golden boy image. Luckily the racist label on criticism has diminished since he has taken power, and valid criticism can and has been made.

But now we're facing a very similar situation with Sotomayor. Many have attempted to chill out criticism of Sotomayor by Republicans, arguing that they may lose Hispanic support if the GOP opposes the first ever Hispanic nominee for the bench. A similar argument has been made that women will coalesce against Republicans if they oppose adding her to the bench because she's a woman.

I call bullshit. If Republicans oppose her, it most certainly will have absolutely nothing to do with her race or sex. Not a single member of the Senate will have that as a basis for opposing her outwardly or inwardly, guaranteed. It's not that the GOP will be opposing Hispanics or women, but that they're opposing THIS Hispanic and THIS woman.

The confirmation process of a Supreme Court Justice is about the substance of her legal views and her view of the role of judicial branch. Is she too quick to dismiss certain types of cases? Read: the Ricci firefighter case. Will she inject public policy into her decisions? Will she adhere to the letter of the Constitution and precedent? Does she engage in careful, thoughtful, intelligent legal analysis? None of that has nor should have ANYTHING to do with her sex or her race (even though she has apparently suggested that that does in fact matter).

Of course, the people who feign outrage at the idea of anyone opposing her are the same people who demanded that Obama nominate a woman and a Hispanic to the bench. They're the ones making it about gender and race. It is an embarrassing travesty of justice to brand someone a racist or sexist solely because they fundamentally disagree with someone's opinions or qualifications, and yet we have already begun to see people wielding that brand.

Obama himself opposed both of Roberts and Alito (hailed as highly intelligent legal minds) solely on ideological, public policy-esque grounds rather than an evaluation of their abilities to analyze legal issues. If any Senators were to treat Obama's nominee as Obama treated Roberts and Alito and oppose them, would they get a free pass to do so as Obama did or would they be bashed relentlessly?