John Sununu is a party-line kind of guy. In 2006, Sununu stuck with the majority of the Republican caucus on 91 percent of party-line votes and backed the President's position 90 percent of the time. In 2005, he received an "F" on his middle class report card from the Drum Major Institute.

But while such a record might suit Sununu in one of the reddest of the red states in the nation, unfortunately for him he represents a purple state -- New Hamphire -- that is trending more and more blue, a state that in November elected its first Democratic legislature in 130 years while reelecting a Democratic governor with close to three-quarters of the vote, a state that sent two Republican Congressmen packing in 2006 in favor of Democrats, a state that has backed the Democratic presidential nominee in three of the past four campaigns for the White House. Given this set of circumstances, it is at least somewhat surprising that on one of the first key legislative votes in the Senate this year -- on the passage of S. 4, which implements the recommendations of the 9/11 Commisssion -- Sununu voted no to appease his corporate conservative supporters who were unhappy with language that would allow for some new workers' rights. The New York Times' David Luo has more on what, broadly, the vote means.

The Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that would enact more recommendations made by the Sept. 11 commission, but the bill faces the threat of a White House veto because it offers expanded union rights to airport screeners.

[...]

The Bush administration has made clear it will reject counterterrorism legislation that includes language pushed by Senate Democrats, granting collective bargaining rights to employees of the Transportation Security Administration. Administration officials said the labor requirements would hamper the department's flexibility in responding to terrorist threats.

Bolstering the veto threat, Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, sent a letter to the White House last month signed by 35 other Republican senators who said they were prepared to sustain a presidential veto.

If Harry Reid forces DeMint and his Republican allies to follow through on their threat to uphold the President's veto -- and there's good reason to believe that he will -- Sununu will be put on the hook one more time for putting his ideological backers ahead of America's national security. And such votes could not come at a worse time for Sununu, whose favorability rating among New Hampshire adults has fallen to just 45 percent, a very difficult position from which to run. And since Sununu was only barely able to win in a good year for Republicans despite illegal voter suppression tactics undertaken on his behalf, a 45 percent favorability rating cannot instill much confidence in Sununu supporters and Republican strategists hoping to see him win reelection next fall -- particularly as a strikingly large number of qualified Democratic politicians in New Hampshire are lining up to take him on.