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The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in support of Judge Sonia Sotomayor this morning almost entirely along partisan lines—13 to 7, with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina the only Republican in favor. Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. She made it through her hearings without the “meltdown” that Graham said would be needed to stop her confirmation, and also without giving Republicans any additional ammunition to oppose her. Yet today’s "no" voters included John Cornyn of Texas, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee and so presumably thinks about the long-term national health of his party, and comes from a state that is 36 percent Hispanic, and Jon Kyl of Arizona, which is almost 30 percent Hispanic. The GOP stance leaves the party without an answer to this headline in Politico: “Democrats have huge day with Hispanics.”
Why don’t the Republicans seem to care? Three reasons ... (Read the rest of this post, or the entire conversation on the Sotomayor hearings in Double X.)
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Thanks, Dahlia, I knew Cornyn was playing games with Hillary's Cabinet confirmation (first his delay over transparency, then being swayed in a “private conversation”). Now I know why: Just a little demonstration of how we play hardball up on the Hill, Mr. Obama.
Holder’s testimony that waterboarding is indeed torture opened the way for legal consequences for interrogation techniques used under the previous administration. Now Cornyn wants the attorney general nominee to walk back the cat by agreeing to not prosecute. The problem for the Texas Republican senator is he just looks like a thug. Like Secretary of State Clinton, Holder will be confirmed with or without Cornyn’s support. I imagine the torture investigations will make their way through one or two newly constituted committees in the 111th Congress, so the terribly busy new Justice Department won't need to waste resources for a while. Cornyn's weeklong delay of Holder is so bullyish, though, I'm tempted to say, let the witch hunt begin.
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When John McCain made his first comments on the Senate floor today since his electoral opponent was sworn into office, calling for a unanimous consent vote on Hillary Clinton's confirmation as secretary of state (instead of the roll-call vote fellow that Republican Sen. John Cornyn insisted on Monday), it looked like a grand gesture of post partisanship. I’m a bit skeptical change has taken hold so quickly. Despite the usual "esteemed colleague" rhetoric, the Senate is a treacherous place. McCain is supporting Mrs. Clinton, yes, but he is also having another chance to tell his sometime rival Cornyn, "f--- you," like he did when the two got into a fight during a 2007 meeting on immigration legislation. (McCain also "used a curse word associated with chickens" but I never figured out what it was.) Nor am I convinced Cornyn's agenda for holding up Sen. Clinton's confirmation vote is as pure as wanting "a little more transparency," which is all he claims he wants from Bill's foundation. Hillary will get confirmed either way. I, too, want Obama's Cabinet to get to work, but a little more disclosure about those donors would not be such a bad thing.
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