I am overcome with admiration at the non-partisanness of this whole thing. I'm sure that the Republican administration would be sure to appoint a liberal Democrat to the position. Kind of like I'm sure the TX legislature gerrymandered, uh, I mean, redrew, the districts here in the middle of the normal cycle as an overall bid for fairness.
ETA given the political affiliations of the players, I'd think they'd be just as happy not to have Kerry voting. Romney must be up for reelection this year, and be expecting to lose. And, it was 87% of roll call votes.
