Held hostage. (Scan).

Miguel Estrada came to the United States when he was 17 years old, speaking only rudimentary English. Within five years he graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College in New York. Then he earned a law degree, again with high honors, from Harvard. He's worked at the Justice Department in both Democratic and Republican administrations, is a member of one of the most prominent law firms in the country and has won two thirds of the cases he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Estrada proved he could succeed on his own, without racial or ethnic double standards or the patronage of leftist advocacy groups. That makes him automatically suspect. In the words of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, Estrada "has lived a very different life from that of most Latinos--a life isolated from their experience and concerns."

Oh really? Let's see, he came here as an immigrant, like about one out of every two adult Hispanics. He worked hard, as do most Hispanics, who have among the highest labor force participation rates of any group. And he succeeded, brilliantly. I have a feeling that it's this part of Estrada's life story that these groups have a problem with. After all, aren't Hispanics supposed to be laggards according to liberal victimology, needing a never-ending series of government programs in order to eke out a meager existence? This liberal racism, wrapped in phony compassion, is the ...