Agreed in general. The moderate wing of the Rats still exists, but keeps very quiet, except for Joe L.
How about this: Salazar voting "no" may be good news. I think this means Salazar knows that Alito is going to make it, so the no vote throws a bone to his left base, and the right base will not be too upset since Alito gets confirmed anyway. Salazar has lucked out here, if the vote was really close, he would be in a bind.
Salazar was elected in '04 and is therefore up four and a half years from now. I don't think he's worried about a SCOTUS vote that far out from his next election. It might be very marginally relevant if he were running for governor this year, but he isn't.
I think it's simpler. He's a Rat and has Rat beliefs. In addition, he wants to go along with the vast majority of his Rat colleagues and his Rat leadership.