Comments on: Poll: Republicans Divided On Whether To Confirm Sotomayor

By: threesmommy

threesmommy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:37:48 +0000

Here’s how it looks to me: roughly 25% of the voting population identifies as republican. Yet 40% of the Senate is republican. Of self-identified republican votes, 36% support Sotomayor, 43% oppose. That is a truly miniscule number of people.
What this really tells us is, there is a disproportionate number of republican senators in Congress, given the number in the general population. They should be mindful of this, and try to tailor their votes to the new reality.

By: Cory

Cory — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:01:21 +0000

I think your post goes to show the obvious and heavily commented on split between interests of members of the GOP. As America as a whole continues to trend towards the middle, this does mean that many Republicans are more liberal/moderate leaving extreme rights left to disagree, these typically being ones in leadership positions, correct?
I don’t think the GOP will become obsolete, but there is just a change going on.
http://tinyurl.com/qvsjfv

By: sbj

sbj — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:23:54 +0000

You are reaching here, Greg. A majority of “rank and filers” agree with the leaders and you cite this as evidence of a disagreement? The result here is precisely the opposite of the other supposed trends that you assert. In this case, rank and file Republicans are arguably more conservative about an issue than most Republicans in the Senate (while being in majority agreement with Repub “leaders”). These results do not support the broad case that you have been recently making.

By: Greg Sargent

Greg Sargent — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:55:24 +0000

sbj, my point was that the leadership is not yet ready to go forward with confirmation, whereas a sizable chunk of GOP rank and filers is ready to see her confirmed.

By: sbj

sbj — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:49:23 +0000

Unless Greg has some actual numbers on how Republican Senators intend on voting regarding Sotomayor’s confirmation, I would think he is absolutely wrong about this. In fact, I’ll bet that the Senators are more strongly in favor of confirming her than rank and file Republicans. Too bad it was a split decision – this just gives ammo to both sides. At any rate, I don’t think it correct to confirm or deny her the seat based on one decision alone.

By: Kathleen Hussein in Maine

Kathleen Hussein in Maine — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:17:29 +0000

Supreme Court rules 5-4 in favor of the white firefighters.