On cnn.com right now. I hope the dems pull together and stop this appointment, but they probably won't.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/26/alito/index.html

On cnn.com right now. I hope the dems pull together and stop this appointment, but they probably won't.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/26/alito/index.html

Of course they won't, the wusses.  And Joe Lieberman probably has a giant crush on Sam Alito!  I'm not mad at the Dems because they made Judge Alito's wife cry during the hearings, I'm mad at the Dems because they didn't make Judge Alito cry!
:\'(

They will not succeed.

I would like to see it happen but like Max said, the Dems are wusses. With everything that is going on, the Abramoff mess, the illegal wiretapping, etc, the Dems should really be taking action but they seem to be rolling over and playing dead.  ::)




Cat

Remember: only Democratic fillibusters are bad.  The Republican ones were always to protect puppy dogs and kittens.

There's a couple conservative Democrats, and zero Republicans who won't support this.  This guy totally doesn't belong on the Supreme Court, and shows a lot of bias towards executive power. 

I would like to see it happen but like Max said, the Dems are wusses. With everything that is going on, the Abramoff mess, the illegal wiretapping, etc, the Dems should really be taking action but they seem to be rolling over and playing dead.  ::)




Cat

The opposition often makes the claim the Dems don't believe in anything.  Yet when you really get down to the Republican nucleus, you find three parts: Greed, greed, and greed.
Greed x 3 = Nihilism.  That's what the Republicans are--nihilists.  Nothing gives a contrarian and magical glow of something if you believe strongly enough in nothing.  Greed cancels out any meaning in Christian piety whether said piety is feigned or sincere.  Republicans and Christianity aren't together arm-in-arm, so much as armageddon-in-armageddon.  The revelatory prediction of a final battle destroying the world is easy to bind with the destruction of systems--economic and ecological--because of mankind's materialstic greed.  Reagan's first Interior Secretar, James Watt, said in 1981,

Of course they won't, the wusses. 


like Max said, the Dems are wusses.




...and these are the people you want standing up to terrorists? ???

...and these are the people you want standing up to terrorists? ???



It is obvious that they are not standing up to the terrorists that are destroying the Constitution, that's for sure.




Cat

Even CNN was saying this wouldn't work.  Wolf Blitzer said on CNN that there is around 70 votes for cloture.  I believe John Kerry knows this, he justs wants to please the far-left base for another failed attempt to become president.

Let's see:

All 55 republicans said they oppose a filibuster, including the most liberal republican in the senate: Lincoln Chafee.

Democrats Robert Byrd, Tim Johnson and Ben Nelson have said they will vote for Alito's confirmation.

Add on democrats Pryor, Salazar, Lincoln, Landrieu, Conrad, Lieberman and Dorgan who have said that while they may not vote for Alito (or in the case of Salazar and Lieberman, won't vote for Alito period), they will not support a filibuster.

55+3+7=65=failed filibuster.
C-Span count: 55 votes for confirmation

It's really all over but the crying.

I call for a filibuster of John Kerry's pomposity and pretentiousness.  What a weinie.  For all of the alleged ill-will towards W back in 2004, this Chuck manged to lose in the biggest trouncing since Reagan demolished whats-his-name in '84.  ;D

Teresa ought to put some ketchup on him... he's done.  ;)

...and these are the people you want standing up to terrorists? ???

Some Democrats would be much better at the kind of brinksmanship it takes to deal with angry, violent contingencies in the world than the Bush Administration and their ham-fisted, John Wayne wanna-be approach.  All who act talk tough and pose tough are not tough.  Dubya has strategy I'd call "scream a lot and carry a Wiffle ball bat."  To the Bushie's credit, they sent our military to beat the hell out of a starved and beleaguered Third World country.
::)

Republicans Clear the Way for Alito Vote
By: Jesse J. Holland of the Associated Press
01/27/2006

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito enjoys sufficient bipartisan support to surmount any Senate filibuster attempt by minority Democrats, members of both parties indicated Friday.

A final vote making the New Jersey jurist the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice is scheduled for Tuesday, hours before President Bush gives his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation.

Democrats and Republicans both said that the 55-year-old conservative jurist will get more than the 60 votes need to cut off debate on the Senate floor Monday. "Next Tuesday, a bipartisan majority will vote to confirm Judge Alito as Justice Alito," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Alito's supporters already have those commitments, with 52 of the Republicans' 55-member majority and three Democrats _ Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska _ already publicly supporting his confirmation as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., also announced Friday he is "leaning in favor of voting for" the conservative judge. "It is clear to me that a majority of the American people and the people I represent support his confirmation," he said after meeting with Alito in his office.

In addition, Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Ken Salazar of Colorado and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota _ as well as GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine _ made it clear after a second day of floor debate on Alito that they would not support a filibuster, even though Akaka and Salazar oppose Alito and the others are undecided.

"We're going to have a vote Tuesday morning," Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said. "Everyone knows there are not enough votes to support a filibuster, but it's an opportunity to people to express their opinion on what a bad choice it was to replace Sandra Day O'Connor."

As the floor debate ensued Thursday, the leaders of the filibuster attempt _ Massachusetts Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry _ were trying to drum up support in their caucus for blocking Alito.

They were counting senators like Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Debbie Stabenow on their side. Other senators, including ranking Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Charles Schumer of New York, head of the Senate Democrats' fundraising arm, did not say Thursday whether they supported the effort.

"There's some division in our caucus," Kennedy conceded. "It's an uphill climb at the current time, but it's achievable."

Many Democrats contended that Alito's confirmation would put individual rights and liberties in danger. The former federal prosecutor and lawyer for the Reagan administration would replace O'Connor, the court's first female justice and the swing vote on several 5-4 rulings that maintained abortion rights, preserved affirmative action and limited the application of the death penalty.

"The president has every right to nominate Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court," Kerry said. "It's our right and our responsibility to oppose him vigorously and to fight against this radical upending of the Supreme Court."

Asked if the administration was taking Kerry's call for a filibuster seriously, White House press secretary Scott McClellan chuckled on Friday and said: "I think it was a historic day yesterday. It was the first ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland."

Republicans immediately began criticizing Democrats for even considering a filibuster.

"Continuing to threaten a filibuster, even after it is crystal clear that Democrats don't have the necessary votes to sustain their obstruction, is needless, strange and at odds with many of their fellow Democrats," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Bush urged the Senate to go ahead and put the 55-year-old judge from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the Supreme Court.

Alito "understands the role of a judge is not to advance a personal and political agenda," the president said Thursday at the White House. "He is a decent man. He's got a lot of experience and he deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate."

Nelson, Byrd and Johnson are the only Democrats to express support for Alito so far. Twenty-two of the Senate's 44 Democrats voted against John Roberts' confirmation as chief justice last year.

If the pattern continues, Alito may be on his way to the most partisan Senate victory for a Supreme Court nominee in years. The closest vote in modern history is Clarence Thomas' 52-48 victory in 1991, when 11 Democrats broke with their party and voted for President George H.W. Bush's nominee.

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