January 19, 2006

Judiciary

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...

Carroll Andrew Morse

From Jim Lindgren of the Volokh Conspiracy...

In response to a question from an audience of Northwestern law students and faculty, [Senator Richard] Durbin disclosed that the Senate leaders were counting votes, not only on Alito's nomination, but on the possibility of a filibuster: "At this point, I wouldn’t want to project whether we will have a filibuster.”

On the nomination more generally, Durbin said that one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, had publicly indicated that he would vote for Alito, and one undisclosed Republican Senator had privately indicated that he or she would probably vote against Alito.


10:20 PM
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Another report from the same meeting is a bit more definitive:

"One Democratic senator, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has said he will vote for Alito. One Republican, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, reportedly may vote against him. No others have said they are breaking party ranks."

Posted by: Marc Comtois at January 20, 2006 3:57 PM

Andrew and Marc, good job on digging this up. We Republicans can be disappointed with Chafee's likely vote against Alito, but we shouldn't be surprised. He should just say where he stands on Alito since the hearings have been over for a week, and get it over with, rather than dragging it out hoping something will happen that will make his decision easy.

Posted by: Fred Sanford at January 20, 2006 8:35 PM

IMHO Sen. Chafee will try to placate both sides by voting for cloture, but against Alito on the Senate floor.

Of course, in trying to please everyone, he will have the (presumably unintentional) effect of pleasing no one. Place your bets now!

Posted by: Will at January 21, 2006 3:39 AM

For all his waffling, Chafee once again comes across as being week.

He doesn't have a prayer against Laffey. Laffey is thoughtful, but tough and decisive...and he connects well with people.

Posted by: roadrunner at January 21, 2006 5:17 PM

Should have used that pre-view button.

WEAK! Chafee's weak!

Posted by: roadrunner at January 21, 2006 5:19 PM