but this wouldn't be the Free Republic without kneejerk reactions and hysterics.
I'll wait for the formal annoucement, and then I'll become hysterical.
ROFL!
You may be right - but there's a history at work here, and we all know that quite a few Republican Senators would rather be liked (and invited to chic Washington cocktail parties) than stand on principle and risk having nasty stories about them published in the Washington Post and New York Times (a/k/a Izvestia and Pravda West).