The confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor wrapped up around 8 p.m. last night, finishing up one day shorter than the questioning of Samuel Alito in 2006. Which means the final tally of utterances of the exact phrase “wise Latina,” or sometimes, inaccurately, “wise Latino,” stands at 27 throughout the four days of hearings. If Sotomayor had never used that line in her speeches, this whole thing could have been over and done with on Wednesday.
