To be honest, this just political posturing because he knew it would go through and he was positioning himself for 2008. It's no different than when he was considering voting for the conservatives justice (I forget which one) because he disagreed with the guy but thought he was intellectually qualified and Kennedy and other Dems told him to
and that this isn't his law school class and Dems would not forgive that.
I think you're getting no responses because this is a relatively vapid example of attempting to make a point of two party hypocrisy, in the grand scheme of things, this thread and article don't mean much. The guy you're arguing with may be wrong in his approach, but this is weak. I thought this would be better.