And then there were 37; 37 Republican Senators who may still vote against the confirmation of Judge Sonya Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court. Richard Lugar, Mel Martinez and no surprise Olympia Snow pledged to vote yea on the confirmation of Sotomayor.
The Republicans announced that they did not intend to block the nomination of the first Hispanic woman to be nominated to the Nation’s highest court, virtually assuring her safe passage through the Senate. I don’t think any of us on the conservative side had any illusions that she would sail through, but a little fight would have been nice.
Sotomayor is clearly an activist judge with an axe to grind, but I wouldn’t really expect anything less of a Barack Obama appointed nominee. The first three Republican Senators to cave serves as a harbinger of things to come. I’m not surprised in the least at Snow and Lugar, Martinez on the other hand does surprise me a little. Senator Martinez said:
“Judge Sotomayor is knowledgeable of the law, would be a fair and impartial judge, and seems to have a good understanding of the limited role the judiciary plays in our democracy,” Martinez said in a statement. “Judge Sotomayor’s rise to the Supreme Court is testimony to the fact that the American dream continues to be attainable.”
That’s a politically correct statement if I ever heard one; Martinez does however have to think about his constituents, plenty of Hispanic votes down there in Florida. He’s the only Hispanic Senator of the bunch, he really had no choice.
The Washington Post reports that Mitch McConnell looks like he may oppose her as well as probably Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Sotomayor only needs 50 votes for confirmation, no mysteries here, elections do have consequences.
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