Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced this afternoon that he will vote for Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
“I feel this is the right vote for me, and quite frankly, for the country,” Graham said on the Senate floor. “She’s definitely more liberal than a Republican would have chosen, but I do believe elections have consequences.”
President Obama, he said, “deserves some deference on my part.”
“I believe she is well qualified. We’re talking about one of the most qualified nominees to be selected for the Supreme Court in decades,” he said.
Graham was one of the most aggressive questioners during Sotomayor’s hearing last week.
Today, he compared his background — first person in his family to go to college, raised a 13-year-old sibling while he was in college — to Sotomayor’s tough Bronx upbringing. He said no one would have thought he could be a senator.
“Only in America could this happen,” he said. “I’m proud of the fact that my country is moving in the right direction, when everybody and anybody can hit it out of the park.”
Graham also commented on her “wise Latina” comment and what he said was her practice of “identity politics.”
“The speeches are troubling but, you know what, I’ve given some speeches that may have been troubling to those on the other side,” Graham said.
We’ll have video shortly.
