Here Come da Judge!

In a nation with a 13% Hispanic population to NOT have a member of this ethnic community on the Supreme Court is a travesty of justice. Wisely, Barack Obama has rectified this situation in the person of Sonia Sotomayor. Her endurance of the Senate Confirmation process was nothing short of stellar given the vitriol and racist badgering of mysonginistic, homophobic, facists like Jeff Sessions, Lindsay Graham and Orin Hatch. Three men with enough related skeletons in their proverbial closets to freaking know better and thus behave better, but then until Republicans are caught red handed, they NEVER apologize for hypocrisy....

And still, nearly before the dust has settled, 3 Republicans have stepped forward to endorse Judge Sotomayor's appointment. Richard Lugar of Indiana is absolutely one of the last sane Republicans in congress. If I had the chance to interview him, I would ask him to remember when he served in the senate with people like Nancy Kasselbaum of Kansas and Sam Nunn of Georgia...O, those were the days. Joining him second is Mel Martinez. The only Hispanic Republican member of the Senate and a lame duck who's loyalty to his linguistic heritage supercedes his opposition to all that is Democratic unlike most of the rest of his party members. And finally, Olympia Snowe jumped on board. She is the most Democratic of the Republican Senators and why she doesn't switch parties is beyond me. History will judge her as possessing extreme fidelity to the party if little else--perhaps it was Sotomayor's "fidelity to the law" that swayed her support.

And so one Democratic pundant on MSNBC tonight predicted a confirmation with 80 Senators on her side. Given that there are now 60 Democrats and that prediction would require another 17 Republicans over the first 3 declared. Here's my score card:

1) Richard Lugar - INDIANA
2) Mel Martinez - FLORIDA
3) Olympia Snowe - MAINE

4) Susan Collins - MAINE
5) Judd Gregg - NEW HAMPSHIRE
6) George Voinovich - OHIO
7) Lindsay Graham - SOUTH CAROLINA
8) Lisa Murkowski - ALASKA
9) Jon Kyle - ARIZONA
10) John McCain - ARIZONA
11) James Risch - IDAHO
12) Charles Grassley - IOWA
13) Sam Brownback - KANSAS
14) Thad Cochran - MISSISSIPPI
15) Mike Johanna - NEBRASKA
16) Kay Bailey Hutchinson - TEXAS
17) Lamar Alexander - TENNESSEE

And I have another half dozen Republican possibles. It's the whole Hispanic thing. You have a nominee that is profoundly qualified--let Clarence Thomas forever set the bar!--and so you say "no"? Unless you live in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Vermont, or Maine kiss a sweet and loyal percentage of your constituency "GOOD BYE".