A once strong Republican Party that Karl Rove and Grover Norquist predicted would eviscerate its opposition has resorted to such a bungling spectacle that Rush Limbaugh has been declared in many circles as its de facto leader.

A classic current example is the 68-31 confirmation vote Thursday for Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.  Not one Democrat voted against the woman who will become the first Hispanic ever to wear a Supreme Court robe.  All no votes were cast by Republicans.

As a party the GOP broke 31 against Sotomayor with 9 votes supporting her.  Senator John Voinovich of Ohio, a shrewd politician who served as mayor of Cleveland before reaching the Senate, stated realistically that, while Sotomayor would not have been his nominee had he been president, that this was not his role.  It was up to him to decide if she were qualified to serve as a Supreme Court justice and voted yes accordingly.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky's analysis of why he would vote against Sotomayor that he could not be confident that she would put political and personal considerations behind her when casting votes, and as such he was voting against her, is arrant nonsense both on a pragmatic political as well as philosophical level.