Sotomayor is not the only person practicing 'identity politics'

BOSTON — Let us hope that Sonia Sotomayor's tumble on the way to Washington doesn't become a metaphor for her journey to the Supreme Court.

For the moment, the broken ankle that had her navigating the Senate halls on crutches brought out the inner gentlemen in her opponents. Republican David Vitter, for one, greeted her with a bag of ice and a pillow. "I hope you all note that some Republicans are empathetic, too," he quipped. I'm not sure about empathy, but after the recent sniping at the nominee as too aggressive and/or not bright enough, I'll settle for the more benign sexism of chivalry.

In any case, this turned the chatter away from the reality program of the month: "Identity Politics, the Sequel." I can't help noting that in the Sotomayor drama, the charge of "identity politics" is leveled at relative newcomers. I have yet to hear a certified member of the establishment derided as a practitioner of this dark art. For that matter, identity itself seems to be exclusively a matter of race, gender and minority status.

Consider what happened when Dick Cheney declared himself in favor of same-sex marriage. "I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone," he said. "I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."

Of course, it is entirely possible that the country's most ardent defender of torture merely thinks that marital bondage should be extended to everyone. But it's pretty clear that Cheney came to this view because of his, um, identity, as the father of a lesbian daughter, Mary, who is raising his grandchild with her partner, Heather. To paraphrase Sotomayor, might not the parent of a gay child understand something more than a parent who doesn't share that life experience?

Remember the young men hostile to Title IX when they were college wrestlers? Many became big fans when their daughters wanted equal time on the lacrosse field. Identity politics? You bet.

A friend of mine, an observant Catholic, bolted out of her seat after the priest blessed all those parishioners "from natural conception to natural death." "How dare you not bless my two grandchildren?" asked this grandmother of in-vitro-fertilization girls. Identity politics? Absolutely.

And did anyone notice the silence when Laura Bush said of Sotomayor, "As a woman, I'm proud that there might be another woman on the court"?

Yipes.