While the Republican National Committee, the insurance lobby and their astroturf allies from Teapartyland are seeking to shout down any reasonable discussion of health care reform at this month's Congressional town hall meetings, the Senate held one last day of votes before leaving town.
By any measure the Senators most important vote yesterday was to confirm the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to become an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
My hats off to the following 8 Republican Senators who voted to confirm Judge Sotomayor -- the 8 are living proof that the GOP is not completely highjacked by the paleoconservatives. On a whole, they said that the President has the right to nominate the person of their choice; only in the most extreme circumstances should a Senator vote against the President's nominee.
The New York Times has a great table showing how the 40 GOP Senators voted on the nomination. Included in the table are the statements of all 40 explaining the reasons for their votes.
Check out the statements of the 8 Senators voting yes:
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, <span>Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, </span><span><span>Sen. Judd Gregg of N.H.</span></span><span><span><span>, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, Sen. Mel Martinez of Fla., Sen. Richard Lugar of Ind., Sen. Lindsey Graham of S.C. and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tenn. and Sen. Kit Bond of Mo., who said it best in my view: </span></span></span><span><span><span>"If some are saying that a <span>Democratic president should not have a liberal justice, does that mean a Republican president shouldn’t have a conservative justice? I’ve supported justices with whom I disagreed."</span></span></span></span>
Cross posted at Fake Virginia.