Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Bond Says He Will Support Sotomayor

CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
Aug. 5, 2009 – 1:53 p.m.

Christopher S. Bond of Missouri on Wednesday became the seventh Republican senator to declare support for the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

“I do not believe that the Constitution tells me that I should refuse to support her merely because I disagree with her on some cases,” Bond said in a floor speech during debate on the nomination. “I will support her.”

Bond had said July 28 when the Judiciary Committee approved the nomination that he was inclined to support her.

Twenty-nine Republicans have declared their opposition, the latest being John Barrasso of Wyoming, and four remain undecided. Since all Democrats are expected to support her, the only mystery left in the confirmation process is the precise number of Republican votes Sotomayor will pick up.

Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski has not declared her position. Neither have Republicans Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming and George V. Voinovich of Ohio.

The Senate debate on Sotomayor’s nomination is expected to go late Wednesday, and conclude Thursday with her confirmation.

For their part, Democrats arranged something Republicans cannot match — a series of floor speeches by five female senators in support of the nomination.

Only four of the Senate’s 17 female senators are Republicans, and two of those, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, are supporting Sotomayor.

“She knows the law, she knows the Constitution,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar , D-Minn. “But she knows America too.”

Sotomayor’s Republican opponents argue that she is too much of an ideologue to serve on the Supreme Court.

Sen. Richard M. Burr , R-N.C., said although Sotomayor assured him privately that she follows the law, “her judicial record indicates otherwise.”

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