One of the remaining loose ends on Elena Kagan’s battle to be confirmed to be on the Supreme Court is whether it would evolve into (one more) party-line only vote or whether some GOPers would cast a vote for her. Now — in the Judiciary Committee phase, at least — part of the mystery has been solve with news from The Hill that Sen. Lindsey Graham will cast a yes vote:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will vote in favor of Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Graham announced his intention to vote for Kagan’s appointment to the bench before the final Judiciary Committee vote Tuesday.
And Graham’s explanation of why is classy: the kind of explanation on Supreme Court nominations that partisans of both parties don’t say as much anymore:
“No one spent more time trying to beat President Obama perhaps other than Sen. McCain,” Graham said. “I understood that we lost, Sen. Obama won, and … the Constitution requires me as a senator not to replace my judgment for his … or pick a fight with Ms. Kagan.”
Graham is the only Republican of the seven on the Judiciary Committee expected to join all 12 Democrats to vote for Kagan.
It’s the explanation that is increasingly going out of style as politicians seem to use as their role models talk show radio hosts, or seem to be auditioning for roles in CostCo’s meat department, packaging red meat that they know will sell to their regular customers.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.