LIVE THREAD:Senate vote to confirm Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court;(UPDATE: Alito Confirmed 58-42)

C-span

[ken5050]

Good morning, all.

Join us today for the final victory lap, the vote to "confirm Samuel Alito, of New Jersey, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court."

It's all over except the final vote tally.

Lots of surprises yesterday at the HUGE vote to impose cloture, so perhaps there are still some surprise votes to come?

[Carolinamom]

Schumer's bottom line: You'll be sooooooooory.

[nuclady]

Tuned in. Thanks for the thread!

[kimmie7]

I'm cubie bound! argh! I am going to my boss's office for the swearing-in, though. He's got a tube in there.

[pillut48]

Jumping right in with both feet! :-)

Chucky quote: "Votes like this DO have consequences, and elections will show that!!"

I hope those words come back to bite the Dems in the rear end, and I bet they will!

[maggief]

[defconw]

Delicious!

[conservativebabe]

With any luck, Stevens will retire in the next, say, ten days

I can see it now, mass DU suicides.

[You Dirty Rats]

Which line, Ken?

[GoldwaterChick]

My morning got off to a gloomy start after listening to the nominations for the Oscars on FNC. Thanks, ken5050, for making my day! (with apologies to Ronaldus Magnus!)

I can't even begin to imagine the smiles on the faces of the entire Alito family. Thank you Ted and John for putting them there!

Any guesses on the length of applause when GWB introduces our new Supreme Court Justice this evening?

[katieanna]

Any other available live links other than c-span that you know of?? Thanks.

[ken5050]

Is the VP in the chair?

[beckysueb]

I wonder if congrats to his mother would be shared with Samuel A., Jr., as well.

That would be a good idea. She raised a fine son. She must be so proud right now. I wish I could send a note to Mrs. Alito, too, telling her what a brave and decent woman she is to sit through this sham she sat through to support her husband. Its women like her who get passed over when honors are given out.

[mosquitobite]

Yes. They allowed additional time for Schumer. He had 5 mins left, and asked for an additional 4. They'll try to paint the Republicans as unfair if they don't. Schumer ended up finishing early and conceeded his time to the Senator from Alabama for being so generous.

I think it was a test. To see if the Republicans would allow extra time even though Frist & Reid had agreed no one would ask for extra time.

[popdonnelly]

The first time I heard Barbara Boxer speak on the news, I thought, "This woman is a real idiot."

[BigSkyFreeper]

"My brain is this small."

[JFC]

I love Jeff Sessions...

[ken5050]

The Fed Chair vote will be a UC..voice vote..

[defconw]

You really did not miss anything, Little Dick just making a donkey of himself as per usual. Senator Sessions is taking care of both Durbin and Schumer.

[Cboldt]

I'm lost - got in late - how many more minutes till the vote?

The vote WILL, positively, absolutely, unequivocally start within a few minutes of 11:00 AM. That hs been known since Thursday, last week, with the only contingency being passage of cloture (which by a rough count, was also easily "in the bag").

The 40 minutes leading up to 11:00 are assigned as follows:

10:20 - :30 - Leahy
10:30 - :40 - Specter
10:40 - :50 - Reid
10:50 - 11:00 - Frist

The DEMs asked for 2 or 3 minutes extra, and sarcastically said that since this is a SCOTUS nominee, the vote could wait an additional several minutes. These guys had HOURS available, all of last week, and didn't use the time then.