While the president went out of his way last week to say that he believed his nominee would admit to a poor choice of words when she said that a Latina judge could reach a "better" conclusion than a white male judge who didn't share either her experience or instinct, her fans rallied to her: This wasn't racism, but common political rhetoric of activist groups. The identity culture spawned by the Democrats diminishes the white man while it continues to blame him for patriarchal abuse of power, whether inside the White House before Obama or on Capitol Hill and at the Supreme Court.

Culture in this country, in the Bork scenario, influences politics and liberalism as it is practiced demanding "equality of outcomes." This certainly was the point behind the decision in the firefighter suit in New Haven, Conn., when Judge Sotomayor voted for dispensing with all promotions because no black qualified for promotion.

Hispanics and the rest of us have every reason to applaud the accomplishments of Sotomayor -- her biography reflects the American dream in which we all take pride. No one should denigrate it as important to establish who she is, just as many of us appreciated the accomplishments of Clarence Thomas.

Biography is important. It testifies to ambition, hard work, discipline against the odds. But Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican, is right to question Sotomayor's "ability to rule fairly without undue influence from her own personal race, gender or political preferences." How she answers questions like this will be crucial to determining whether she's a good choice for the high court.

Bork, as a pessimist, believes that America is in decline. The "morning in America" celebrated by Ronald Reagan has become late afternoon in America. Bork's personal experience makes that understandable. Such pessimists see the nomination of Sotomayor as a step toward decline. Her nomination, however, can be an opportunity to examine the hazards of identity politics. The task before the U.S. Senate is to get to the content of Sotomayor's character and her judicial qualifications -- what Alexander Hamilton called "the requisite integrity with the requisite knowledge."

That will require toughness, not nastiness, from senators on both sides of the aisle. Clarence Thomas, who should know, said it well: "A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate." So the senators should take their lunch. They have a long day's work ahead.