Flashback: Seven GOP Senators Backed Sotomayor For Judge
Seven Republicans currently in the Senate voted for the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor in 1998 as U.S. Circuit Court judge, suggesting that Republican ranks could be divided over whether to confirm her to the Supreme Court.
According to the roll call, the seven Republicans who backed Sotomayor at the time are Richard Lugar, Olympia Snowe, Robert Bennett, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins, Orrin Hatch, and Judd Gregg.
She was also supported by Arlen Specter, who of course is now a Democrat but whose backing for Obama’s SCOTUS pick was seen as anything but assured.
If some of these Senators continue to back Sotomayor, it could divide the GOP caucus and kill any efforts by the GOP to filibuster the nominee.
As Taegan Goddard points out, 11 current GOP Senators opposed her at the time, including Jeff Sessions, who is now the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, a key post for any SCOTUS fight.
Expect the Senators who backed her the first time to be among the first targets of wooing by the White house and other Sotomayor supporters — and to come under tremendous pressure from her opponents and from the conservative base. They are a key bloc to watch; if they stick with Sotomayor it could spark a whole new round of fighting between moderates and conservatives over the soul and future of the GOP.
Update: Edited for accuracy. The actual number of Republicans who backed her is seven. Apologies.
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folks, please let me know what your experiences in comments are…
This one is gonna be a cake walk. There’ll be the usual amount of artificial drama but to no effective end.
I love this. The GOP is climbing all over her as an “activist” judge for the court is where policy is made. A bunch of them went to law school and they know as well as I do that it’s just the straight truth. There’s nothing “activist” about it – court rulings are the last word on legislation.
Supreme Court rulings are the final word on the Constitution.
…the “court is where policy is made” statement.
Sorry -
greg – I gather you refer to technical sorts of glitches rather than the scabrous social interactions with the likes of sg, tena, ABC et al?
Greg – what does your question mean?
She should be easily confirmed so long as the Dems don’t try to rush this through.
“Since Sandra Day O’Connor’s nomination by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the average number of days between the designation of a nominee and the start of hearings has been 45 days.”
technical glitches:
Comments with three links have to await “moderation.”
Sometimes receive “You’re posting too fast” when I’m not really posting too much at all.
How about some quick buttons for indent, italic, bold, paragraph return, quoting/replying to other comments?
Greg – I haven’t had any technical problems other than the “you’re posting too fast” message from time to time. The problems are mainly in the comments programming – we can’t format our posts, for example. That’s what I find problematical.
And then of course there is the censor…
(oh, too funny – the commenter gave me the “you’re posting too fast” snark when I tried to post this the first time. LOL)
sbj – yeah, I knew that. Just wanted to use the adjective ’scabrous’ to describe you others.
.
The lack of formatting capability is unfortunate. More bothersome to me is the insistence that paragraphs are evil.
The Weekly Standard’s Goldfarb showing his classy nature…
.
“on the issue of diversity, Obama seems to have the views of a 21-year-old Hispanic girl — that is, only by having a black president, an Hispanic justice, a female secretary of State, and Bozo the Clown as vice president will the United States become a true ‘vanguard of societal ideas and changes.’”
“The lack of formatting capability is unfortunate. More bothersome to me is the insistence that paragraphs are evil.”
I agree – I just sort of lump that under the general formatting problem.
“You’re commenting too fast” is on a roll today…
a gift to obama. john yoo has come out warning she is a “results-
oriented” vote for the court. a fine one to talk. you’d think this
apologist for torture would have the decency to keep quiet.
however, if you thought that Yoo’d be wrong.