The vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor is happening now. CSPAN predicts a vote of 69-31. That means, I think, that only nine Republicans are voting for her. That’s less than I predicted.
Update [2009-8-6 15:15:32 by BooMan]: The final vote was 68-31, so obviously Sen. Byrd showed up and voted. Congratulations to Judge Sotomayor!!
Kennedy expressed support but isn’t voting due to illness.
Interesting feature of this vote is that all the Senators are remaining seated and that they are all present. Normally they stagger in and mill about and then give a thumbs up or down to the clerk.
What were the votes for Alito and Roberts. Do you know offhand?
.
(The Hill) – The margin of Thursday’s vote closely mirrored the 67-29 total of Senate approval on Oct. 2, 1998, when Sotomayor was confirmed for a seat on the 2nd Circuit. At that time, all of the 29 opposition votes came from Republicans, although 25 of them crossed over to support her.
The vote did not quite reach the bipartisan 78-22 vote that confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts in September 2005, hewing closer to the 58-42 tally that confirmed Justice Samuel Alito in January 2006. Democrats split evenly, 22-22, on Roberts, but only four supported Alito and 40 opposed him.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Roberts- 78-22
Stevens- 98-0
Scalia- 98-0
Kennedy- 97-0
Thomas- 52-48
Ginsburg- 97-3
Breyer- 87-9
Alito- 58-42
Sotomayor- 68-31
Also:
O’Connor- 99-0
Souter- 90-9
Well, that’s one good thing this Administration has done. Congratulations, Justice Sotomayor!
What a historic day and its only fitting that Sen. Al Franken read to the Senate that Justic Sotomayor was confirmed.
Good times.