Five GOP Sens voted for Sotomayor in '98A bit of relevant history: Five current Senate Republicans -- plus Arlen Specter -- voted for Sonia Sotomayor during her highly-contested federal appeals appointment in Oct. 1998.
Senate Republicans, led by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), blocked her nomination by Bill Clinton to the Second Circuit for an entire year, arguing -- presciently -- that she was being tapped in preparation for a SCOTUS appointment.
Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) joined a unanimous slate of Dems in pushing Sotomayor through by a 68 to 28 margin.
Among the 28 Republican nays were current Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.), Minority Whip John Kyl (R-Ariz.), ranking Judiciary Committee member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Past performance is no guarantee of future votes -- and Sotomayor is already being targeted by conservative groups over comments she's made suggesting an activist streak.
On the other hand, she's the first Hispanic to be nominated for the high court -- and every GOP leader with a pulse knows that opposing her could accelerate the stampede of Latinos out of the GOP in the southwest, west and Texas.
McCain, who has been extraordinarily sensitive to those trends (if unable to fight them) might be the real bellwether here: He's been a pretty reliable GOP soldier on SCOTUS, so if he breaks from his party early -- or had really nice things to say about Sotomayor -- it could be a sign that Sotomayor will have an easy time.
Also look out for what associates of Daddy Bush (Jim Baker, etc.), who first appointed her to the federal bench, have to say.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0509/Five_GOP_Sens_voted_for_Sotomayor_in_98.html
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