This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination. The committee is divided between 12 Democrats and seven Republicans, and GOP sources expect the final vote to be 13 to six, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham the only Republican to vote for Sotomayor.
Committee members are expected to deliver speeches explaining their vote, but in the end, the session is expected to be a straightforward affair. “There’s not a rabbit in the hat,” says one GOP source. “They [Democrats] can vote her out of committee whether we show up or not.”
From there, the nomination goes to the full Senate, where, even though her confirmation is a fait accompli, another GOP source predicts “considerable debate.” That debate, starting next week could fill four days. It is expected to be a fairly mild affair, unless there is a repeat of earlier scenes in which Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy charged, as he has done several times, that “Republicans” or “Republican leaders” have called Sotomayor a racist. Leahy was referring to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s tweet, quickly withdrawn, that, in light of the revelation of Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” speech, “White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.”
No Republican on the committee, or the Senate as a whole, said that, and it irritates GOP senators when Leahy makes the accusation. So there might be some conflict if Leahy chooses that line of discussion, but otherwise, the debate is expected to be uneventful.
But it might still go on for days. Now that the Senate has given up on passing a health care bill before leaving town on August, 7, Sotomayor is the lawmakers’ main job. “They don’t have much to do,” says the first GOP source. “They’re not backed up against a health care debate, so Sotomayor is the last big thing they need to do.”
