Republican Lincoln Chafee geeks on Alito: will vote against the nomination, which is a surprise only to those who missed this post last week.

And although Chafee has shown himself during this process to be craven, cowardly, and driven only by a late-blooming sense of animal survival, nevertheless we offer him a qualified VDB salute.

Because finally it’s about votes, not motives. And a nay is a nay is a nay, as Gertrude Stein once famously remarked, debating Pat Buchanan on Crossfire.