| Over the weekend, three Republican senators - Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) - announced their support for Sonia Sotomayor, who is seeking to become the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the nation's highest court.
Today, a fourth Republican - Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) - said she would also support Sotomayor's nomination.
An aide to Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins says Collins will vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Spokesman Ian Swanberg says Collins is preparing a statement detailing her support for President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. Sotomayor is in line to become the first Hispanic and third woman justice.
Collins becomes the fourth Republican to say publicly she'll break with her party's conservative leaders to support Sotomayor. The federal appeals court judge is expected to win confirmation easily in a Senate vote early next month.
The support from Collins and Snowe isn't surprising when you consider that they were two of the 67 senators who approved Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Circuit Court. Lugar, who was also around in 1998 for that vote, supported her then and will support her again now.
The same that is going on now and can be said of the 1998 vote: The conservative Republicans rallied against her, even though they were small in number. Only 29 senators (all Republicans) voted against Sotomayor's nomination in 1998. With the announcement of these four senators supporting Sotomayor, we are looking at a similar vote in 2009. |
