Today's obviously going to be largely about the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. And the Congress Matters angle will have to be about the voting, even though I don't think there's much question about how it's going to go.
But let's at least air it out as to why.
This morning's events drove the braincasters on Twitter to wondering what the nettlesome middle-of-the-roaders like Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), etc. would do with this pick.
CQ Politics (in the person of Taegan Goddard) was at it early, too, with a Tweet announcing that it had found that seven current GOP Senators had voted against Sotomayor's nomination to the 2nd Circuit in 1998. The roll call gives us the list, and reveals that the number is actually 11:
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-AL)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
The story with the count of 7 was pulled in favor of a version with the corrected count of 11.
As to the question of the Gang of 14, it turns out that only one member of the Gang -- noted bitter curmudgeon John McCain -- voted against her in 1998. Eight other Gang members who were in the Senate for the '98 vote voted in favor: John Warner (R-VA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Dan Inouye (D-HI).
The other five members of the Gang weren't yet in the Senate, like Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Ken Salazar (D-CO) -- and of course two of them (Chafee and Salazar) no longer are.
It might be worth noting that the four members of the Gang (2D, 2R) no longer in the Senate have all been replaced by Democrats. John Warner (R-VA) by Mark Warner (D-VA), Mike DeWine (R-OH) by Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) by Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ken Salazar (D-CO) by Michael Bennet (D-CO).