Dr. King, 1963: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Rush Limbaugh, 2009: "Whatever happened to the content of one's character as the basis of judging people?"

In other words, amid the tumult of 1963, Dr. King went out of his way to put himself on record as supporting a core belief, a belief Limbaugh has repeatedly endorsed -- the idea of a colorblind America.

Where do Republicans and conservatives expect to find themselves at the end of this process? If it isn't still carrying the flag as the colorblind party of Lincoln and Reagan, then they will be in trouble and deservedly so. Newsflash: all Hispanics do not think alike. The thought itself is the very epitome of what's wrong in this debate.

As more and more of Judge Sotomayor's thinking has become public it is increasingly clear just how correct Rush Limbaugh has been on this issue of racism. Just as Dr. King was met with prim resistance from the moderates of his day, insisting that King was an "extremist" and must be dismissed as an "outside agitator" -- so now are these very same charges being hurled by today's moderates against the colorblind advocacy of Mr. Limbaugh. For, it must be said, the very same reason. They just want to be nice. They do not care about justice, as Dr. King said, they care about order. And Rush, very much in the style of Dr. King, has disrupted their orderly parade.

There is nothing nice about racism, whether it appears in the form of fire hoses and police dogs or a curt dismissal from a judge on the Second Court of Appeals. Judge Sotomayor may well have an appealing personality, but it is her racial beliefs that are at issue -- and as Dr. King went to some length to point out, even nice people can be racists. Indeed, Dr. King responded to another moderate criticism about his rejection of the then-newly elected Mayor of Birmingham by astutely pointing out that just because the new mayor was a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo."

Exactly. Make no mistake: Judge Sotomayor is diametrically opposed to a colorblind nation. She is a passionate believer in what has long been the Democrats' status quo -- judging people by race.

And Rush Limbaugh, to his considerable credit, has called her on it. More to the point, in focusing on "the elephant in the room" he has, just like Dr. King, put the feet of moderates to the fire. Isn't it interesting that the national holiday signed into law by President Reagan honored Dr. King -- and not a group of moderates?

There was a reason.