The 53-46-1 vote was an earlier procedural vote (5:13 PM EDT) to confirm McConnell’s decision to not further delay the vote as was pushed by Chuckie.
The later actual confirmation vote at around 7:30 PM EDT was 52-48.
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OK, thanks for clearing up that confusion.
Interesting that Thomas was also confirmed by a 52-48 vote, and he is reported to be the Justice who is going to swear in ACB at the Whitehouse tonight.
On the day the full Senate voted to confirm Clarence Thomas, Teddy K gave a fiery speech denouncing those of his fellow Judiciary Committee members who were Republicans, for not believing Anita Hill's lies. He said something like, "Shame! Shame! ..... Shame on you for the way you treated that poor woman!..."
Immediately after that, his fellow Committee member Orin Hatch R-Utah, got up to answer Teddy:
"If anyone out there thinks for a minute that we Republicans treat women shamefully, I've got a bridge in Massachusetts I'd like to sell them!"
One of the all-time best bite-backs I've ever seen.