Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) just announced that he will support Judge Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, explaining that “my choice for President did not win the last election, and…our people’s democracy has spoken for the change and they are getting it.” ”Elections,” says Bond, “do have consequences.” Bond joins six other Republicans in defying his party’s base to support President Obama’s nominee. Watch it:
Bond’s willingness to break from his fellow conservatives may flow from his plans to retire from the Senate at the end of his current term. A coalition of prominent right-wing activists, led by disgraced computer hacker Manuel Miranda, delivered a letter to minority senators demanding that they filibuster Judge Sotomayor just one week after her nomination was announced.
Right-wing attack dog Ed Whelan recently warned that conservative senators who do not share his views on judges “may discover that the next elections they face have unwelcome consequences for their political careers.” With no risk of a primary challenge in his future, however, Bond apparently feels comfortable voting his conscience, instead of the right wing’s “white voter strategy.”
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