Hotline After Dark -- She's Seen Fire And She's Seen Rain

"World News" and "Evening News" both led with the Bernie Madoff sentencing. "Nightly News" led with Michael Jackson's death.

Last night's guests weighed in on the SCOTUS reversing the New Haven firefighters case decision endorsed by SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

FNC's Hume, on why the ruling is "likely to deal no more than a glancing blow" to Sotomayor's confirmation prospects: "For one thing, the court was narrowly divided with four justices basically agreeing with Judge Sotomayor's position. That hardly constitutes a stinging rebuke. Sotomayor had also been criticized for failing to address serious constitutional questions raised by this case, in which white firefighters were effectively denied promotions based on their skin color. But the Supreme Court did not address those constitutional questions either."

More Hume: "I just think that on the basis of this case, the court, short of affirming what she had done, did her about as much good as they could do" ("Special Report," 6/29).

NBC's P. Williams: "While the majority does reverse her today, they don't come down on her like a ton of bricks. There's no wording in this ruling today saying, man, were they ever wrong" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 6/29).

CNN's Borger: "It does give her critics some new ammunition to say that she's a judicial activist, that she rules based on empathy rather than the law. However, her supporters will say that what this proves today is that it's just the opposite. That, in fact, the Second Circuit, including Judge Sotomayor, followed precedent, and that what the Supreme Court did today was offer a new interpretation of the civil rights law. So, this is clearly something we're going to be hearing more about" ("Situation Room," 6/29).

After the jump, WH press sec. Robert Gibbs on "Don't ask, don't tell" and SC LG Andre Bauer's (R) pressure on SC Gov. Mark Sanford (R) to resign.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

NPR's Liasson: "It impacts the confirmation hearings very little. ... The person that she is replacing was in the minority. In other words, if it was in the majority, you could argue that her addition to the Supreme Court would actually change the outcome of this case" ("Special Report," NPR, 6/29).

NBC's Guthrie, on the RNC sending out a list of cases that the SCOTUS has overturned on Sotomayor's side: "The White House is saying, look, just because the Supreme Court reverses a decision that a judge was on, this is not a referendum of their competence or their abilities. If it were, for example, Chief Justice Roberts was on the losing side of the Hamdan case, the one that struck down the military commissions. ... Justice Alito, I believe, wrote two opinions that came before the Supreme Court. Both of those were reversed" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 6/29).

AR AG Dustin McDaniel, on whether this ruling will affect Sotomayor's confirmation bid: "This is in no way a reflection on her competence to serve. And, frankly, in my opinion not going to have any impact on her confirmation. I think she's going to do very, very well and she should" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," CNN, 6/29).

Frank Ricci, Matthew Marcarelli and Ben Vargas, three of the New Haven firefighters who challenged the city's police, appeared on "Hannity" with their atty, Karen Torre.

FNC's Hannity: "I know this is a 5-4 decision. ... But in essence, when you look at it, really, it's almost 9-0 because even those in the minority found that the Second Circuit with Judge Sotomayor had really botched this case. Is that your reading of it?"

Torre: "I think that's how most people read it. I think they just disagreed on what should happen on the remand, so obviously we are relieved and delighted that five justices formed a majority to give a result that we had hoped for."

Hannity: "You really were denied equal justice under the law, so that raises a question about ... Sotomayor, who was active in this case, and you've got to have thoughts on her."

Ricci: "It's been a really long road for all of us. Today we really want to focus on the fact that we won at the United States Supreme Court."

Hannity, on Sotomayor: "This is just the latest in a series where she was overturned. ... Should that raise questions in the minds of the American people?"

Torre: "We obviously have very strong feelings about the way we were treated in the lower courts. ... There's no question that we had a very difficult time accepting how our case was handled below and I know a lot of people have had something to say about that."

More Torre: "And Judge Sotomayor having been nominated to the Supreme Court has only added to the commentary on that, but honestly today, we just don't want Judge Sotomayor and her nomination or anybody else for that matter to sort of invade our space. You know? We're happy today. ... We might have something to say about that some other time, but really, we don't want anything wrecking our day today."

Marcarelli: "This is not about Judge Sotomayor. This is about 20 New Haven firefighters that were denied promotion on the basis of their race, and we fought a long, hard battle, not just for ourselves, but for firefighters and public safety personnel and public safety in general throughout the country" (FNC, 6/29).

CAN YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE?

Meanwhile, Gibbs sat down with NBC's Todd at the WH, and he was asked about "Don't ask, don't tell."

Todd: "There's been a study that said you can stop ... the discharges. Why not do that as a first step?"

Gibbs: "Because the team has determined, in consultation with the Pentagon and others, that's going to exacerbate the long-term problem of getting something through Congress. In order to get something done that's enduring ... something that isn't overturned or isn't something that causes such a sharp political reaction that it becomes ultimately harder to do away with a policy that the president strongly believes is not in our national security interest."

More Gibbs: "He's working with the Pentagon, working with members of Congress, and said at this event just a minute ago, Don't judge me simply by the promises I made, judge me by the promises I keep. I can assure you that when we look back -- and this is going to take some time, but when we look back, the president will be judged on the promises that he kept, and this will be one of them."

Todd: "And when he runs for re-election, this will be a promise he will have kept?"

Gibbs: "I think that is the case, yes."

More from the interview:

Todd, on WH sr. adviser David Axelrod's 6/28 appearance on "Meet the Press": "He seemed to hint, Look, if you have to prioritize, health care one, then energy. Is that how you'll spend your political capital? Is that a fair assessment here?"

Gibbs: "I think that's true, but I think David would agree with this because this is what's come from the president -- we can do both. We can do financial regulatory reform on top of that. The Senate can also do a Supreme Court nominee in time so that she will be able to hear the rearguing of a case in September. We can do all of these things."

Gibbs, on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) saying Pres. Obama did not take a bipartisan approach to the stimulus package and climate change legislation: "We're not going to put something on the House floor that isn't going to pass. The president was actively involved in ensuring that members, Democrat and Republican, understood what was in this bill, understood what wasn't in this bill, because you had members of Lindsey Graham's party talk about the fact that this bill was a huge tax increase, even though the Congressional office budget says that's simply not true. ... I think the president has made progress on bipartisanship."

Todd: "Define it. What's it mean to this White House? ... Republican ideas or Republican votes?"

Gibbs: "I think that if you look at any number of things that this White House has done -- and look, change isn't easy in Washington. ... Through the course of our legislative battles, we've expanded the number of Republicans that support these things. ... You had seven Republicans on the climate change bill."

More Gibbs: "I think to be able to get bipartisanship, we've got to have a two-way street. The president is making progress. That's why just last week, the Senate health committee that's working through bipartisan health care reform accepted over 100 Republican amendments to that bill. That's incorporating Republican ideas into the most complex piece of legislation we're working on today" (MSNBC, 6/29).

WE'LL ALL FLOAT ON

And there was chatter on MSNBC about Bauer confirming he's open to agreeing not to run in '10 if Sanford resigns.

Politico's Martin: "It's a trial balloon. I think he's floating that out there to see what kind of response he gets from that. And I think the hope in doing that is that he can sort of firm up perhaps his statesmen credentials."

More Martin: "I talked to Republicans today in South Carolina, and they pretty much scoffed at that offer, because what they think is that Bauer knows -- and what most of the folks in the state know -- is that Sanford is probably not going to resign. So by saying this, it's a pretty safe thing to say, knowing that you wouldn't have the opportunity in the first place" ("Hardball," 6/29).

SC state Rep. Todd Rutherford (D), asked whether Bauer's offer would work for him: "That would work, but he didn't call me and say that. And somebody else called him and he said that he was running that idea through his head, but he had not committed to it. So if he has by now, then I think that's a good thing" ("Ed Show," 6/29).

Chicago Tribune's Page, asked what the "window" is for Sanford: "I suspect over the next month we should know. And if he does spend the rest of the term, that's just going to set up all the other opponents who are ready to challenge him in that primary fight" (MSNBC, 6/29).