GOP needs to get its Latinos straight

Would you be annoyed if someone made a joke about you that assumed you were Australian?

Or English?

Scottish?

Or maybe they would look at you and say something funny about New Zealand.

If you've ever had any of that happen to you, then you might understand how Judge Sonia Sotomayor must feel in all the discussion of her nomination to the United States Supreme Court. She's a New York native whose parents emigrated from Puerto Rico prior to the Second World War. She was born in the Bronx, and calls herself a "Nuyorican."

She is the first American of Latino descent to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and because of that, a lot of people seem to be confused about what a Latino is. At least one political cartoonist has portrayed her as a pinata, which is part of the Mexican Christmas celebration.

At least one Republican senator, in trying to be humorous, said that some of Sotomayor's statements meant that she had "some 'splainin' to do." That of course is a reference to "I Love Lucy," in which Lucy was married to a band leader from Cuba.

It may be hard for some people to believe, but other than language, the various peoples that qualify as Latino -- or Hispanic -- don't have much more in common than Newt Gingrich does with Crocodile Dundee.

Maybe Republicans need a couple of reminders. Roberto Clemente was from Puerto Rico, for one. Bernardo, Anita and Maria in "West Side Story," they were Puerto Ricans.

Ricky Ricardo was not a Puerto Rican.

Neither were Speedy Gonzalez, Pancho Villa or the Taco Bell chihuahua.

And as far as I know, Newt Gingrich never hunted crocs, although I'm not so sure about Dick Cheney.