How many Republican Senators will oppose Kagan?

With the Senate Judicial Committee voting on the President's second Nominee to the United States Supreme Court, current Solicitor General Elena Kagan this week, and with the entire US Senate voting on her Nomination within the next few weeks, I feel it's necessary to rollcall/guess how many of our Senator's will oppose Ms.Kagan.

Let us start with these statistics:

72.5% of the Senate Republican Conference opposed the Nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court last summer. 11 Republicans supported her.

77.5% of the Senate Republican Conference opposed the Nomination of Elena Kagan to become the Solicitor General last spring. 6 Republicans supported her.

We already know that Ms.Kagan will receive more opposition from Republicans than Sotomayor did last summer, on account of her opposition to Military recruiters on campus, her stonewalling of US Senators, and the fact she is far more liberal than anyone anticipated. However, the expected opposition cannot be determined accurately.

Why?

1. Senator's Cochran, Ensign, and Graham were not present during the entire Solicitor General Senate vote in March of last year.

2. Senator's Coburn, Hatch, and Kyl supported Kagan's nomination for Solicitor General, but we know Hatch opposes her Nomination to the Supreme Court, leaving more speculation in the air as to who could flip one way or another.

3. Senator Martinez is no longer apart of the Senate (he voted against Kagan), as he resigned and was replaced by Senator LeMieux, who just happens to have no record whatsoever on Kagan.

At the least we should be able to expect 35 or 36 Republican Senator's to oppose Elena Kagan's nomination to the Bench, with the entire Democratic Caucus supporting her. That's just a guess on my part, but we'll find out soon enough.

Thoughts?

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