Hutchison signals filibuster unlikely

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said a filibuster of Judge Sonia Sotomayor would probably be unlikely, adding to the list of Senate Republicans showing a disinclination to block the Supreme Court nomination.

Hutchison said that a filibuster probably wouldn’t be needed unless an exceptional circumstance arose over the next few months.

“I don’t think the need for filibuster will be there unless we’ve had a chance to do that in an expeditious way,” Hutchison said on CNN’s “State of the Union” about the Senate’s review of the president’s pick to join the high court.

“I think we need to look at the record fully, and I think we ought to do that in an expeditious way,” the Texas lawmaker said, echoing a number of other GOP lawmakers’ careful remarks about the nomination.