“The only that surprised me is that Dick Lugar was NOT one of the closure votes.”
It shouldn’t have surprised you that Lugar voted for cloture of the McConnell nomination—he represents a conservative state and his seat is up in 2012. The only Republicans from conservative states to vote for cloture were those whose seats aren’t up until 2014 or 2016 (Chambliss, Isakson, McCain, Graham, Murkowski, Alexander and Thune); only Brown and Snowe, from liberal Massachusetts and Maine (although Maine ain’t quite *that* liberal) voted for cloture while being up in 2012.