Powell Attacks Critics Of Sotomayor, "Worries" About Obama
Guardian: Colin Powell, one of the nation's most prominent African-Americans, is going after people who attacked Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor because of her stand in favor of affirmative action. Powell, who's from the same Bronx neighborhood in New York as Sotomayor, said she should face "a spirited set of hearings" in the Senate. But he said the federal appeals court judge, who would be the first Hispanic justice, shouldn't be condemned for ruling against white firefighters who contended they suffered reverse discrimination. "What we can't continue to have is to have somebody like a Judge Sotomayor ... called a racist, a reverse racist and she ought to withdraw her nomination because we're mad at her," Powell said in an interview broadcast Sunday on "State of the Union" on CNN.