The confirmation vote for Sanya Sotomayor was 68-31.
There are 60 Democrats in the Senate.
Therefore, 8 Republican heroes voted for confirmation of a liberal, Hispanic judge with 17 years of distinguished service in the Judicial system. The other 31 Republicans voted...as the Lord of the Admiralty explained in Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore, when he told his listeners how he had achieved his high office:
"I always voted at my party's call."
"And I never thought of thinking for myself at all."
"I though so little, they rewarded me"
"By making me the ruler of the Queen's Navee..."
It is clear that the 31 Nay votes were similarly motivated by party loyalty.
Not by Sotomayer's credentials, which are impeccable.
To put this in perspective, when John Roberts was up for confirmation as Chief Justice of the Supreme court during George W. Bush's reign, 22 Democrats voted for his confirmation. When interviewed, they stated that, although they did not agree with Roberts' conservative stance, they thought that a President should be allowed to appoint judges that were consistent with his personal views...as long as they were qualified. Nobody questioned Roberts' qualifications.
The contrast in THIS confirmation hearing is stark. Although they tried to paint Sotomayor as a racist, and questioned her "right" to be influenced by her ethnic background, they could find very little to argue about in her distinguished 17 year judicial record.
But that didn't matter to those partisan Republicans, who put party loyalty above everything and never thought of thinking for themselves at all...
It is sad, how judicial appointments have become politicized in recent years.
But the Religious Right, and their influence on the Republican party has created a scorched-earth atmosphere in Congress.
The "birthers" are another example of this...people who are still not willing to accept the fact that the occupant of the White House is a black liberal Democrat.
If the GOP allows these know-nothings to continue to dominate their party, they doom it to permanent minority status...and even though I am a Democrat, I don't think that would be a good thing for the country.
Let's hope moderate, intelligent Republicans wake up and rescue their party from the clutches of the Neanderthals.
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However, I think all the moderate, intelligent Republicans are in the lifeboats while the fringe lunatics are running around on the deck, waving their arms in the air and firing their pistols higgledy piggledy. When a party turns to 'luminaries' like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Anne Coulter and Joe the plumber for leadership you can tell that they long ago scraped through the bottom of the barrel and are now digging into the muck below it.
Excellent post
Mix religion with free thought...independent thought... and what do you get??.........oh wait...you can't mix religion and free thought....the two are mutually exclusive.
TI...Lonely heroes, indeed. Sadly, most of them were only able to vote their conscience because they are in their final term in office.
Slim...right...and I'll get back to you on the NRA thing. I just need some time to think things through.
Something similar has happened in California, where the Right Wing has captured the Republican Party and condemned it to permanent minority status.
Unfortunately, they have just enough votes to sabotage the budget, so they are happily bringing this great state to the brink of bankruptcy.
But when your are an ideologue...you don't worry about the people or anything else...just follow the dictates of the party...and don't think for yourself at all.
Hopefully, we will fix this by changing the Constitution so that a militant minority cannot shut down the government.
No, I am as healthy as a hog, Jim. I have just lost my urge to write for this site
Truth, Justice, and (what we want to re-generate, pride in) The American Way.
Just sayin'...
Blessed be, Bert B.
Wilka
"Let's hope moderate, intelligent Republicans wake up and rescue their party from the clutches of the Neanderthals."
I agree, but think this means we'll have to clean house and move in some new Republicans.
Some of the younger members might just need to be prodded to awaken their sleeping brains.
I need help. Next election, I'm calling on all of you to help get him out. It probably wouldn't hurt for you to send a few letters and calls his way now.
But I feel sorrier for the country that has to suffer his votes and ignorant speaches.
Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but I'm not so sure the Repubs are permanently out. The key people are those who call themselves independent. Many of them take on that label because they're too lazy to read past the headlines or to think about the implications of what the loudmouths are shouting. If the economy is slow to recover, and/or the health care reform gets so watered down that it's ineffective (or just doesn't work), then the GOP will be back. Now if there were a truly Independent (capital I) Party, I think Repubs would be permanently out. In that case, I'd bet Dems would often come in 2nd.
I agree with you about this Robert. The Democrats have only gained the inertia they possess at the moment by default...due to the truly inept, bumbling, born again, lying bastard, war mongering, hate slinging, Palin worshiping, Rovian, ethic-less, torturing, actions of the Republicans.
The Democrats displayed their spineless, yellow bellied nature as they refused to go toe to toe with the Bush administration.
You are right Robert...both parties are disgusting. It is only a matter of the degree of sleaze.
So, I'm taking "issues" up as my new focus. To a large part based on input from postings here on Gather.
Wilka
I thought of myself as a Democrat through most of the Bush years, but after Congress gave up their Constitutional war oversight duty to Bush, and the Democrats failed to hold the Bush administration accountable or responsible, after Pelosi took impeachment off the table, that was it.
After the Democratically controlled congress gave Obama the 106 billion dollar war funding bill a few months ago, I'm willing to see them rot in hell with the Republicans (Disclaimer* just a figure of speech, as I don't believe in such a literal place).
I wrote a (somewhat naive) article on this subject a couple years ago.
Here's the link if anyone is interested.
I am not optimistic about this at all. It seems to me that the moneyed special interests have lost very little influence over our government, in spite of the recent election which should have improved things.
January 17, 1961
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. "
Eisenhower, in his farewell speech, correctly predicted everything we SHOULD NOT DO ...WHICH WE HAVE DONE... with regards to the expansion of the industrial/military complex.
Read his entire message.... http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5407.htm
If this man was concerned we should all have been alarmed. Instead, we slept.
I think Jack Ruby was part of the cover up. "They" were not confident of Oswald's commitment to claim sole responsibility...to keep quiet about his "handlers".
Of course it is nothing that anyone can question with specifics because they will be labeled a "conspiracy theorist" as if all such inquiry were somehow "bad" ...
It's good to see your face on my screen again. And your message as usual is important and well-stated. Unexamined ideology, a lack of self-awareness, and money drive a lot of this.
As a person who sang in several Gilbert & Sullivan operettas in high school, I loved your opening and mentally sang it in its quick tempo.