A voice of reason

Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

From the time that Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the newest justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, it was obvious from her record that she is a highly qualified, even-tempered federal judge who is well within the mainstream of jurisprudence.

It was also clear from the onset that this would not satisfy Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They signaled that they were going to oppose her selection, not because of her performance on the bench, but because of statements she had made outside court.

This opposition had nothing to do with her qualifications. It had everything to do with their rigid conservative ideology.

Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina can be just as conservative as his party colleagues. But Graham was the only Republican on the committee who joined the majority Democrats in approving her nomination Tuesday.

Graham, to his credit, saw what fellow Republicans were unwilling to recognize.

“I base my vote on qualifications, and I came away after the hearing believing that she was well qualified, that the American Bar Association gave her the highest rating anyone could receive ... and she’s of good character,” Graham said during the committee’s vote.

The senator wasn’t exactly a cheerleader for Sotomayor. Like fellow Republicans, he said he was disturbed by her speeches.

But Graham, to his credit, acknowledged that Obama won the last presidential election and therefore had the right to select qualified nominees of his choosing.

Instead, what we heard from the likes of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the committee’s ranking Republican, was a lot of partisan posturing that had nothing to do with Sotomayor’s fitness to be a justice.

We don’t agree much with Graham on the issues but there is no question that he has a better understanding of what the Supreme Court nomination process should be about than his Republican colleagues.