It seems to us here at USDemocrazy like months have passed since President Obama named Sonia Sotomayor as his choice for a Supreme Court Justice. (Wait… months have passed…)

Well, finally some actual voting for Sotomayor’s nomination has started… and the nominee  is a sitting pretty.

She has gotten the stamp of approval from the very important folks on the Senate Judiciary Committee. These usually bodes well for the next step: a vote in front of the the entire Senate.

We here at USDemocrazy have your Rundown:

First, the gist of the matter, as provided by the NYTimes:

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 13 to 6, on Tuesday to endorse the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, easing her path to likely confirmation as the first Hispanic member of the tribunal.

So what does a 13-6 vote mean you ask, the BLT enlightens us:

All Democrats on the committee voted in favor of her nomination. All Republicans but one — Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) — voted against it, as expected.

So what does that mean? How does that stack up to previous nominees? The Washington Post has the answer:

The committee’s vote was more polarized than its September 2005 vote on the nomination of John G. Roberts Jr., who is now the court’s chief justice, when three Democrats joined the panel’s Republicans in supporting his confirmation. Tuesday’s vote, however, was less divided than the vote on the most recent nominee, Samuel A. Alito Jr., in January 2006, when the panel endorsed him by splitting entirely along party lines.

Now for something cool. Click on THIS LINK to the Wall Street Journal Online, which has an interactive breakdown on the the individual votes of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

This is just the tip of the iceberg my friends, with juicy moments of political divisiveness ahead. We here at USDemocrazy will keep our ear to the ground. In the mean time, tell us what YOU think!