Goodwin Liu (Sotomayor also served in the Appellate Court). This is incredibly important since the next step up would be the Supreme Court .
Goodwin Liu is Taiwanese-American and has a historic record of socially liberal stances on political issues. He was a Professor at Cal Berkeley’s Law School, Boalt and received his J.D. at Yale University. He has published numerous articles during his tenure in favor of Same-Sex Marriage and Affirmative Action. Currently, Republicans in the Senate are threatening to Filibuster since they fear his liberalism will interfere with his decision-making as a judge–we’ve all heard this argument before by right-wingers. They cry “judicial activism” when liberal people of color are up for nomination.
This will be a huge achievement for increasing representation by Asian Americans in the U.S. Government.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-liu-20100423,0,5722070.story
I agree that the tops down approach to positive representation of the Vietnamese Americans is important. I also agree that a bottoms up approach, where the Asian community expresses positive sentiment is important as well. Recently, I read this girl’s blog:
http://myhappyfinds.com/2010/04/29/sexy-trashy-vietnamese-women/
It hurts me that a fellow Asian person would attack another Asian group when we are all part of the struggle in assimilating in the American Culture.