January 24, 2006
Alito Committee Vote Coming
But first, the 18 Senators each get 10 minutes to speak, which sets the actual vote for no earlier than 12:30pm. The 8 Democrats are taking the opportunity to lay out why they think they're justified in voting "no". Their comments are for the benefit of the Left-wing interest groups and are directed at the other Senators of their party.
But in the end, the 10 "yea" votes from the GOP Senators are the only ones that matter. And the Committee is expected to send the nomination to the full Senate. So far only one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has gone on record as saying he will vote for confirmation. That's 56 at a minimum.
Whether or not more Democrats (particularly those in Red States who voted for John Roberts) will join Nelson is uncertain. They are: Blanche Lincoln (AR), Mark Pryor (AR), Bill Nelson (FL), Mary Landrieu (LA), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Kent Conrad (ND), Byron Dorgan (ND), Tim Johnson (SD), Robert Byrd (WV) and Jay Rockefeller (WV). That would make 66 the maximum.
So the spread right now is between 56 and 66 votes. Ill guess Alito gets no more than 61 votes, probably fewer than that.
UPDATE: Chuck Schumer really is a slimy, reprehensible sumbitch.
UPDATE II: The vote is done. 10-8 in favor. Now on to the full Senate.
Posted by: Gary at
11:10 AM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 231 words, total size 1 kb.
1
If I recall correctly, the committee vote was strictly along party lines for Roberts, also, but when the vote went to the full Senate, fully half the Democrats voted
yea. Somehow, however, I doubt you'll see such a discrepancy with Alito. And if he wins with anything short of 60 votes, the MoveOn/Kos axis will go ballistic with anger at the Dems for not filibustering.
Posted by: Cynical Nation at January 24, 2006 12:55 PM (vC1jc)
2
Actually it was 13-5 for Roberts.
The three committee Democrats who voted for Roberts -- Feingold and Kohl of WI and Leahy of VT. I agree that Reid is in a bind. If he keeps most Dems on the reservation and no filibuster, the Left will slam him as leader. But any Dem that votes for Alito will be an individual target for the moonbats.
I suspect that Reid knows exactly who will vote yea and no and the reason he is being quiet about it is that Alito will get at least sixty (though probably not much more).
Posted by: Gary at January 24, 2006 01:35 PM (QoxB+)
3
Bayh is in a bad place. He was in hot water back in Indiana for voting against Condi and Roberts, and he's in danger of trashing his major strength: being seen as a "moderate" (or even "conservative" depending on who you talk to) Democrat.
Posted by: rightwingprof at January 24, 2006 04:09 PM (hj1Wx)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
Comments are disabled.
Post is locked.
16kb generated in CPU 0.0213, elapsed 0.0967 seconds.
114 queries taking 0.0878 seconds, 223 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
