he gets to the podium and takes a question from helen thomas. robert gibbs gets up there, says, the president believes that judge sotomayor's life story is a compelling one and her voice will be an important addition to the supreme court. then he calls on helen thomas. question, did she pay her taxes? mr. gibbs said, pardon me? question, did she pay her taxs? mr. gibbs, well, i have not seen anything on that. in fairness, i should know -- i should note that it appears jouge sotomayor has paid her taxes, so there's some complain that she's had life experiences other obama nominees have not. there were more serious issues that emerged in the rollout process two. issues concerned comments she made not in the context of a written judicial opinion but comments she made in articles. the first was her statement she made at berkeley law school where she said, i would hope that a wise latino woman, with the richness of her experience, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white man who hasn't lived that life hsm second was at duke la

then he calls on helen thomas. >> question, did he pay her taxes? >> mr. gibbs says did she pay her taxes? >> well, i have not seen anything on that. in fairness i should note that it does appear she has paid her taxes so i think there is some truth to the claim that judge sotomayor has had life experiences that other obama nominees have not. there were more serious issues that emerged. two of the issues that arose concerned comments that judge scothe made of a written opinion, but law school forum and the like. the first was the statement she made at berkeley where she said "i would hope that a wise latino woman with the richness of her experiences would reach a better experience than a white man who would never live that life." the second is where she said the court of appeals is where the policy is made. she said i know this is on tape and i should never say that. i think both of these comments raise concerns. both present perfect legitimate areas of inquiry. the u.s. senate and individual senator haves a constitutional evaluation to evaluate the nomine