Sotomayor pick ignites 'identity politics'

WASHINGTON, May 31 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama, who has advocated a "post-racial" view of government, has invited racial controversy with his Supreme Court pick, analysts say.

Because Judge Sonia Sotomayor has openly embraced her identity as a Latina in the past -- standing in stark contrast to the president's own low-key approached to race -- his critics have pounced on her selection as an example of the kind of "identity politics" Obama has denounced, The New York Times reported Sunday.

"Obama has sought to transcend ethnic differences and has emphasized his own post-racial identity to appeal to as many Americans as possible," William Burck, a deputy White House counsel under President George W. Bush, told the Times. "It seems that Judge Sotomayor considers her ethnicity to be a central part of who she is, not just as a private citizen but also as a lawyer and a judge."

"(Obama) thinks there's value in having a Supreme Court that has a diversity of experience and diversity of points of view," presidential adviser David Axelrod told the Times, "but that was not the principal criteria that he applied. The principal criteria he applied was, is the person an excellent judge?"