Pat Dollard

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POLITICO:

After calling Judge Sonia Sotomayor a “reverse racist” last week, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday that he may now possibly support President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court.

“I can see a possibility of supporting this nomination if I can be convinced that she does have a sensibility toward life in a legal sense,” Limbaugh said during his show.

In justifying his flip, Limbaugh pointed out that Sotomayor is Catholic and “doesn’t have a clear record on abortion.”

Hinting that Sotomayor could possibly support overturning Roe v. Wade, Limbaugh said “whoa, it would be huge.”

“I don’t know if it will ever happen,” Limbaugh said, before claiming that the “opportunity” of her support in overturning the landmark abortion case could be enough to get his backing.

Despite voicing potential support, Limbaugh also said that he is not backing off his claim that Sotomayor is a “reverse racist.”

“I’m not retracting it. Nobody’s refuted it,” he said. “When she says she’d do a better job than a white guy, what is it? It’s racism, reverse racism, whatever, but it’s still racism. She would bring a form of racism, bigotry to the court.”

Limbaugh was joined last week by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in calling Sotomayor is a “racist” for past statements suggesting that a “wise Latina woman” could come to a better decision than a white man.

Gingrich backtracked from the comment Wednesday, writing in Human Events that his initially reaction may have been “perhaps too strong and too direct.”

“The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor’s fitness to serve on the nation’s highest court have been critical of my word choice,” Gingrich wrote.

“With these critics who want to have an honest conversation, I agree,” he added. “The word ‘racist’ should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable (a fact which both President Obama and his Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, have since admitted).

Limbaugh knocked Gingrich for backing off his comment , saying “I didn’t know why he had retracted it, and I still don’t.

“What did he say? Why did he retract it?” Limbaugh asked. “I have my own theory about what Newt’s doing, but since I’m not doing it, I’m not going to comment.