The senator’s statement in favor of confirmation was not terribly coherent. He started out by suggesting that he was voting on the principle that senators should swallow their disagreements and defer to presidential decisions on nominations, and then claimed that she was a rule-of-law jurist with whom he wasn’t going to disagree. So, in short, deference wasn’t a factor here: From his remarks, you’d think she would be just the kind of justice that a President Martinez would have appointed. (Martinez also said, bizarrely, that he “intend[s] to be very proud of her service on the Supreme Court.” What kind of intention is that?)

The senator’s comments on Sotomayor have stressed her ethnicity while also denying that it had anything to do with his decision. That was true when he announced his support for her, and true today. Martinez is well known in the cloakroom for lecturing other Republicans on the need to reach out to Hispanics. He often notes that when he leaves the Senate the Republican conference will have no Hispanic members. That’s why he’s supporting Marco Rubio to be his replacement.

Oh wait. Martinez is supporting Charlie Crist in the primary. Abandoning your principles turns out to be easier than bucking your state party establishment.