The shameless hypcrisy of the GOP stopped being news at least 20 years ago, if not more.

"Those nominees represented the considered judgment of the president of the United States. And under our Constitution, it is the president's call to make."

In fairness to McCain, the tide has shifted from voting based on qualifications to voting based on ideology. Orrin Hatch, like McCain, normally votes to support the President's choice, but this year did not citing the precedent set by Senator Obama. Senator Obama voted against Judge Roberts noting that he was eminently qualified, but was temperamentally unfit--or something to that effect. The gist was Obama didn't like Roberts' ideology.

The days are gone where deference is given to the Presidents choice. It's all ideology all the time.

It's very disturbing how politicized Supreme Court nominations have become. In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by a vote of 96 to 3.

Brava!

In defense of Republicans, remember that the Democrats blocked the appointment of a Hispanic Republican male to the federal appellate court, and Obama voted against Alito and Roberts. Republicans are just blowing off steam.

I think we need go back to LBJ's nomination of Abe Fortas, then an Associate Justice, as Chief Justice, in the fateful summer of 1968, and the first filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee, initiated by the Southern Republicans and Democrats (there were some then), to identify the turning point. LBJ was a self selected lame duck and Abe Fortas was a prominent and highly qualified, if somewhat blemished, liberal (others would say "activist") jurist and constitutional lawyer ("Gideon's Trumpet" is about his client Gideon Wainwright). In many ways, it has been downhill ever since.

Note that McCain voted AGAINST Sotomayor. So much for practicing what you preach....

I voted for their confirmation, as did all but a few of my fellow Republicans. Why? For the simple reason that the nominees were qualified, and it would have been petty, and partisan, and disingenuous to insist otherwise.

But since "that one" is now calling the shots, I'm asking for a mulligan. No vote for you Ms Sotomayor.

The next court retirement, if any, is when the real crisis in confirmations will occur. Perhaps we'll finally see some kind of rational control exerted over a right-wing ideology, that when it wins, does anything that it wants to do, and when it loses---does anything it wants to do.

I wonder if the constant harping at the hypocrisy of the Republicans does anything more than reinforce our righteousness.

Part of the reason Republicans are so hypocritical is because they advocate standards of behavior that humans as a whole can't realistically be held to to begin with.

"Those nominees represented the considered judgment of the president of the United States. And under our Constitution, it is the president's call to make."

The days are gone where deference is given to the Presidents choice. It's all ideology all the time.

I agree completely with what ChrisNBama said, and I'd like to add that since the Repubs sold Dubya as "the guy you'd like to have a beer with", all respect for the presidency has given away. It seems to be more of a bar fight these days than actual governance. What a pity...

As someone else pointed out, when McCain said that, he thought that HE was going to be president.

Oh, and my prediction is that the next person Obama nominates to the high court will be called a Nazi.

Based on Republican math, she was actually confirmed 99-0 (See right wing commentary on Ricci decision where a 5-4 = 9-0).

"less than a fourth of the [Republican] caucus -- nine out of 40 -- voted "aye," and four of the nine did so at least in part because they know they're retiring next year and don't have to worry about the wrath of the GOP base."

Well then, let's make sure the GOP base punishes the hell out of the five brave souls who are running again. Nothing personal, but the more we can get the wingnuts to pound the GOP moderates, the more seats the Republicans will lose to us.

Oh, great, now another vacancy in the 2nd Circuit...

It's entirely likely that John Paul Stevens will be the next retiree, yet another from the 'liberal' wing of the court. Regardless of the fuss the crazies will make over whomever Obama nominates, he/she too will in the end be confirmed. The real fight will be when Scalia, Kennedy or Thomas go, and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any indication of that any time soon, barring divine intervention. 5-4 decisions are here for a while longer.

The country is ungovernable, and ideological battles over SCOTUS will plague us indefinitely. It really started with Bork and has been tit-for-tat ever since.

I must confess the best part of this confirmation is imagining the reaction of Jeffrey Rosen.

Huckleberry Graham, Dick Lugar and the two from Maine are in incredibly safe seats and don't have to worry about the NRA and wingnut lunacy. Probably Lamar Alexander, too. Of course, no Rethug running in 2010 dared to vote for her.

I had a little bet with myself that both Ladies from Maine would vote *for* and I won :) And if Obama's next picks are female, I think they'll vote for them too, as long as they're qualified.

The Republicans used to routinely charge that Democratic presidential candidates intentionally ran far to the left to win the Democratic primaries, adopting policies that disqualified them from running as "centrist" mainstream candidates in November. Bork did the same thing, traveling around the country spewing far right rhetoric to every wing-nut group he could find. He figured strong support from the Republican faithful would ensure a nomination to the Supreme Court from a conservative Republican President. He was right in this, but it evidently never crossed his mind that playing such a public openly political role in advancing far right policies might cost him the support of a Democratic Senate.

That 31 Republicans opposed Sotomayer really isn't all that important, but if you read the AP report Republican opposition was the focus. Reading AP is like participating in a whole different universe where Republican opposition to the evil Democrats and those nasty brown and black people is all that counts.

I had a little bet with myself that both Ladies from Maine would vote *for* and I won :)

Congratulations. Now don't stiff yourself on the payment. No one likes a bad sport.

The two brave senators who represent my vacation home in Arizona make up for the cowardly California ladies and their pandering to Spaniards.

Arizona will reward McCain in 2010 for his courage.

Its also funny how the rules change when you have a conservative primary challenger.

I went to the doctor and he mentioned that he does not do that sort of thing. I’m a little bit over 200 pounds it wasn’t like i was asking for bypass surgery but i he couldn’t do something for me. So which variety of doctor do you imply, i just require a bit guidance/help and i was turned away, so i’m so confused now.

As a contractor, I address some of these issues are a regular basis... thanks for making sense!