WASHINGTON (CNN) - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will vote against the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, his office announced Friday, marking the first time the Kentucky Republican has ever opposed a nominee to the high court.
"Judge Sotomayor's record of written statements suggests an alarming lack of respect for the notion of equal justice, and therefore, in my view, an insufficient willingness to abide by the judicial oath," he said in a written statement. "This is particularly important when considering someone for the Supreme Court since, if she were confirmed, there would be no higher court to deter or prevent her from injecting into the law the various disconcerting principles that recur throughout her public statements. For that reason, I will oppose her nomination."
McConnell, who also opposed Sotomayor's 1998 appellate court nomination, has previously voted to confirm every Supreme Court nominee since joining the senate in 1985, including Clinton appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
Other senators who have announced their intent to vote against Sotomayor are Republicans Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Bob Bennett of Utah. Bennett supported Sotomayor's 1998 appellate court nomination.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Thursday that the GOP will not attempt to block a direct vote on Sotomayor's nomination. Currently, Republicans control 40 seats in the chamber, just shy of the number needed to indefinitely delay a final vote.
From CNN Politics
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what do you expect from a bush/cheney supporter.....
way to be an ineffectual twit, mcconnell. do something useful for the people, PLEASE!
so exactly how many times has this lifetime politician been allowed to vote on supreme court justices....
we need term limits for politicians,, but unfortunately those that would create those laws are the same politicians who would effect.. also the same politicians who are allowed to give themselves raises...
all spanish speaking TV channels and radios are already reporting about the old white GOP man.
Bye bye to all hispanic votes...
Vote against her if you want Mitch. You'll be out of a job next election cycle. Good riddance!
I think he's just a bigot and that the GOP is grasping at straws to make sure that anything and everything they can throw into the mix to try and prevent the overwhelming tide of Dem's that are replacing the GOP's power structure is halted or slowed. Darn what's best for the people. Its about power and heck, the Latino vote was lost a long time ago so why not??
Obviously non-white people scare him.
What a bunch of racists. Their whole questioning centered around their major theme of "wise Latina." My goodness where is the intellect in that. Like they don't feel (C-street) like the superior white male race, and how dare anyone have any pride in their own culture or race. What white men have the corner market on self pride alll of a sudden? And that Pat Buchanan sums it up the best..only white men can be supreme court justices..everyone else has a hidden agenda except white men...........you lnow, white created this country, white men built this country and therefore only white men should run this country...funny..last I heard the Native Americans were the first real Americans so we stole the land from them, and then we had slavery..wow had Black people do all the labor to build this country..so what did white men do other than TAKE off the backs of others???
I'm sure he'll be bashed by lefites, but he's being consistent. The article says he opposed Sotomayor's 1998 appellate nom.
And before anyone moans about partisanship, please note that it states in the first paragraph that this is the first time he's voted against a Supreme Court nomination. In other words, he supported Clinton's picks.
It is amazing how tone deaf and rigid the GOP has become. To think I used to actually respect and voted for the the republican party under Reagan and HW Bush
Not any more....................They have completely lost any semblance of sanity and are nothing more than rigid slogan ranting idealoges
Mitch you are a sore loser.
Good ol' Mitch, playing to his adoring unibrowed teabaggers while paying lip service to what is right and honorable. Come to think of it, however, that last part is a pretty impressive feat for a man who has no lips.
who cares how he votes. He would vote against anything a democrat offiers whether it would be good for the country or no.
This guy is a buffoon, and clearly a racist!
Might as well forget it, as those democrats will support Obama's plan to show the US what it's like to scrape the dregs of NYC ghettoes into the Supreme Court. Obama wants us all to "feel" the Constitution, not just honor and obey it.
What else would we expect from a senator as bereft of intellectual depth as Mr. McConnell?
No surprise here, from the leader of the "party of no".
Typical white southern male politician! This nominee is the most qualified in over 70yrs and Senator McConnell, along with his other southern cohorts, can't comprehend the meaning of her writings. But then they all supported Scailia and Thomas!
The behavior shown by this group of southern white senators is appalling!
Oh Baby!
Watching the foaming-at-the-mouth liberals spewing on this ticker is going to be fun! As Sniffit would say... "Popcorn... get your popcorn hee-yah".
Don't worry, democrats. She's in. You may need to take another blood pressure pill, but she's in.
Mitch McConnell not supporting Sotomayor? Not a surprise. He's still part of the old school, white-men-in-charge network. She's going to get confirmed anyway!
Not unexpected from the turtle-faced KKK member from Kentucky.
That's why he belong to the party of "NO GO". So, nobody vote for him next time.
It is no big surprise that McConnell is planning on voting no. His reasons are limited and not even 100% valid. It appears that he isn't into supporting anyone that Obama will offer. I can't really call him a racists because I am sure that he supports Thomas.
This is a man who is absolutely useless to the GOP. He hasn't the ability to reign in his own party members and it shows daily. The Sotomayor hearings were a traversty of racial bias.
The ever shrinking base of the GOP is dwindling down to the likes of Pat Buchanan, old white men, who age themselves every time they open their mouth.
What I can't understand is why the GOP caters to these fools. They are a dying breed. Cathering to them while tossing everyone else out makes no sense.
It certainly isn't going to win votes in 2012.
Never mind that her court rulings have always been solid and beyond reproach. When ruling against the firefighters, she was following legal presedence and the Supreme Court issued a ruling that in effect said, that from here on out, these matters should be treated in this way.
Well, GOP, better kiss some of the Latino votes goodbye. Since she was going to be confirmed anyway, I'd think they would have saved their fight for the next appointee.