Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) has announced that he will vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the Kansas City Star reports.

"Elections do have consequences," said Bond, adding that he's voted in the past for justices with whom he disagreed, and that Sotomayor is well qualified.

Sotomayor currently has seven Republicans set to vote for her: Bond, Mel Martinez (FL), Lindsey Graham (SC), Lamar Alexander (TN), Dick Lugar (IN) Olympia Snowe (ME) and Susan Collins (ME). No Democrat has come out against her.

It's worth pointing that Bond will neither pay any price among the GOP base, nor win over swing voters -- he's retiring in 2010.