Allah and Pat Toomey argue that Republican Senators should vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor, notwithstanding her “wise Latina” nonsense and her lawless ruling in Ricci, mostly on the theory that elections have consequences. Quoth the self-denying deity:

Geraghty’s back-of-the-envelope math shows the final vote shaping up to be 66-32, well below what I predicted. The GOP can’t muster 10 votes for a woman who spent five years as a federal district judge, 11 more as an appellate judge, and had one truly controversial ruling to her credit during that time?

Make that two, at least. The NRA opposes her for ruling that the right to bear arms is not a fundamental right or an enforceable right at all against the states. They couldn’t give a rat’s patoot about race. And it’s a bit misleading to say these were they only cases casting doubt on her judicial temperament. At most, it may be fair to say these are the only major appellate cases where the poor temperament had an obvious ideological motivation.

I can’t imagine what the litmus test will be if they take back the Senate before Obama leaves office and have to approve any future nominees.

Imagine this: what if we had a Republican President who appointed two highly qualified Supreme Court Justices, neither of whom had any temperament issues whatsoever, and a majority of Senate Democrats opposed them anyway, even to the point of trying to filibuster one of them? Tough to imagine, I know, but indulge me further and imagine, if you can, that Senate Dems went even further and made their least experienced and most radical member – the guy who wanted to filibuster both nominees – to run at the top of their ticket in the very next Presidential election.

I know it sounds far-fetched, but trust me, it could happen. And if it did, what exactly do we gain by taking the high road? The answer, I think, is nothing apart from the luxury of being self-righteous the next time the proverbial shoe is on the other proverbial foot. However, we also have to ask what we gain by opposing a nomination that is all but guaranteed to happen, anyway. John McCain gets “I’m a real Republican, not a RINO, dammit” points, but the rest of us get, well, nothing. Since the high road gains us little while the low road gains us nothing, I say we take the high road and save whatever dwindling political capital we have left for the cases where spending it can actually change the outcome.