So what's the deal with our Republican Senator?

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the third ranking GOPer in the Senate, announced today that he is breaking with party leaders to support Judge Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the nation's highest court.

He said that he is backing Pres. Obama's first appointee to the SCOTUS even though he differs with her rulings in gun cases.

"Even though Judge Sotomayor's political and judicial philosophy may be different than mine, especially regarding Second Amendments rights, I will vote to confirm her because she is well qualified by experience, temperament, character and intellect to serve," Alexander said in a speech on the Senate floor, reports the AP.

Alexander becomes the sixth Republican to endorsed the president's pick. He follows Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Olympia Snowe (ME), Lindsey Graham (SC), Dick Lugar (IN) and Mel Martinez (FL).

Ailing Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) are not expected to make it to Washington for the vote. If the remaining members vote along party lines, which remains to be seen as at least a couple Dems –– notably Ben Nelson (NE) and Mark Begich (AK) –– have indicated they're undecided, the final vote would be 64-34.

John Roberts was confirmed as chief justice in '05 by a vote of 78-22. The '06 vote for Samuel Alito was tighter, 58-42, following a failed filibuster attempt.

Between this and Eric Holder's confirmation votes by Alexander, I'm disgusted with him and Corker.

I'll write in Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck's names before I ever vote for either of them again.

Incumbants of BOTH useless parties need to be voted out of EVERY office.  Until that is done the citizens in this country will never have a real voice in politics again.

Folks have known Alexander is a closet Liberal for years.  His vote comes as NO surprise to some of us who have been voting since before he was Governor.

At the risk of sounding like I'm nitpicking, since when is he in the closet about being a liberal. The only misleading he's done is put an "R" behind his name.

And these days, that "R" almost never stands for "Real Conservative"  

Simple: he's playing to his re-election effort in the next election cycle. Huge Latino voting block in TN these days, in case no one has noticed.

Also, the Dims have a filibuster-proof 60 vote majority in the Senate. IOW, the Republicans can go piss up a rope, the Dims could pass Angela Davis in as SCOTUS pick if they really wanted to. Alexander is simply reading the writing on the wall & looking over his shoulder at what should be a tough election opponent.

Does anyone really think Ford, Jr. would run as sloppy of a campaign against Alexander as he did against Corker? I guaran-damn-tee you Ford, Jr. might very well beat Alexander in a head-to-head election, IMO.

Steve Cohen would be another possible upset winner against Alexander as well, IMO.

My .o2

Alexander is a douche bucket and I'll vote for whoever runs against him whether it's Harold Ford or Sadam Hussein's half-cousin. The faster he is gone the faster we can get better