Sotomayor brother: Critics 'insulting'

WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- The brother of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor says criticism of her has been "insulting" and "derogatory."

Dr. Juan Sotomayor told ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday efforts by conservative opponents to depict the U.S. appellate judge as a "reverse racist" were "off-base."

"If I could create a Webster's dictionary for the most insulting, derogatory, off-base comments that I've heard about a person, it would be … I'd have to sit here and go through that," Juan Sotomayor, a practicing physician in Syracuse, N.Y., said. "This is not the person that they're describing."

Sonia Sotomayor has drawn barbs from such Republican critics as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and talk show host Rush Limbaugh for suggesting in a 2001 speech that "a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Labeling those remarks racist doesn't "deserve a response," Juan Sotomayor told ABC, adding, "I'm not sure that even the word (racist) even applies to that statement. It's an overreaction."