Recently Pat Toomey made this statement about Justice Sotomayor,

If I were a U.S. senator, I would vote for her confirmation, because objective qualifications should matter more than ideology in the judicial confirmation process.

His reasons were these,

As a former member of Congress, I observed the transformation of the confirmation process into the spectacle it has become in recent years. Judge Robert Bork’s personal movie-rental records were examined. Alito was asked about a college student organization he participated in decades earlier. This sordid kind of questioning serves only one purpose: assassinating a nominee’s character because of presumed ideological disagreements.

Throughout most of our history, Supreme Court confirmations were not like that. The change has harmed the country and undermined the public’s crucial faith in the independence and integrity in the judiciary.

This disturbing trend must stop. The Supreme Court must not become just another political body in which partisanship and ideology rule.

We Republicans have long said that the role of the Senate with respect to judges is to provide “advice and consent,” not to thoughtlessly veto based on ideology. Our principles have to apply whether we are in the majority or the minority.

From the Philly Inquirer

Yesterday at the Right Online Conference in Pittsburgh he answered the same question and I was able to get a video,

I enjoyed the candor and intelligent response from Toomey and agree with him. The hypocrisy in Washington is blatantly evident but it’s nice to see a statesmen who believes that you should do unto others in politics like you should in everyday life.

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