Sonia Sails Through The Senate

MSNBC is reporting that the Senate easily confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the vote tally 68-31.

The Democratic-led Senate has voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor, who is now poised to be sworn in as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. According to NBC News, that event is scheduled for Saturday.

The vote was 68-31 for Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. She will become the 111th justice and just the third woman to serve.

Senators took the rare step of assembling at their desks on the Senate floor for the historic occasion, rising from their seats to cast their votes.

Ahead of the Thursday afternoon vote, Sotomayor picked up additional GOP support even as more than three-quarters of the Senate's 40 Republicans pledged to vote against her.

"Judge Sotomayor's decisions, while not always the decision I would render, are not outside the legal mainstream and do not indicate an obvious desire to legislate from the bench," said Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio.

"I have confidence that the parties who appear before her will encounter a judge who is committed to recognizing and suppressing any personal bias she may have to reach a decision that is dictated by the rule of law," he said.

Democrats, praising her as a well-qualified judge and a mainstream moderate, had warned Republicans that they could face backlash from Hispanic voters — a growing part of the electorate — if they opposed her.

"Judge Sotomayor should not be chosen to serve on the court because of her Hispanic heritage, but those who oppose her for fear of her unique life experience do no justice to her or our nation. Their names will be listed in our nation's annals of elected officials one step behind America's historic march forward," said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois ahead of of the historic vote.

All 59 Democrats voted for, the abstention was Ted Kennedy who was unable to attend the vote, Senator Robert Byrd however did. A total of 9 Republicans voted for her as well, including Judd Gregg and George Voinovich. (Funny to see the retiring GOP Senators casting a vote for her, Mel Martinez and Kit Bond, too.) The rest, the untouchable Dick Lugar, Lamar Alexander, both the Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and good ol' Lindsey Graham rounded out the horrible traitors to La Raza affirmative votes.

[UPDATE 4:10 PM] Nice to see Al Franken getting some props presiding over the Senate for the vote, too...even if he will forever have YouTubes of SNL attached by terribly clever Villagers to any news story he makes.

[UPDATE 4:25 PM] Skippy is still my damn hero.