Who is refusing to filibuster Alito? Who are the Chicken Littles so afraid of losing their right to filibuster that they fail to see that if you don’t use it you’ve already lost it?”
The historic right of the minority to filibuster, in fact, seems no longer to exist for judicial candidates. As journalist and national commentator Eleanor Clift put it during a recent Portland gathering to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, “Democrats are so afraid to lose the right to filibuster that they don’t realize they’ve already lost it.”
And what flimsy excuses could any Democrat possibly have to oppose a filibuster?
“Because we have such a full plate of pressing issues before Congress, a filibuster at this time would be, in my view, very counterproductive,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who wants the Senate to concentrate on Hurricane Katrina rebuilding programs. “We simply cannot afford to bring the Senate to a halt at a time when we need its action the most.”
No Senator. You are dead wrong. Nothing is more presing or more important than who will sit on the Supreme Court for the next 3 to 4 decades, especially when that person is a confirmed supporter of extending Presidential power, restricting individual liberties and frustrating Congress’ desire to pass laws that provide for the general welfare of all Americans.
Nothing. Is. More. Important.
So who else can we count as as a Cowardly Lion? I’ve heard Ken Salazar mentioned as one of these idiots refusing to endorse a filibuster. Who the hell else is there? I want to know. I demand to know. I want to know who the hell are the Democratic Quislings, because I want to work my hardest to see they get no more of our time, our effort or our money. I want to ensure they pay for their cowardly deed today.
To paraphrase our dunce of a President, “You’re either with us or your against us.” Any Senator who refuses to filibuster Alito is against us in my book. So, who knows who the enemies in our own camp are? Harry Reid has been quoted as saying there are eight. Eight goddamn cowards.
I want names.
Here’s the article on Salazar. Be seated before you read his callous disregard for us.
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_4414916,00.html
Add Feinstein to the list too.
That figures.
Say, Tehanu, I’m really glad you’re pointing to Rocky Mtn News articles since we don’t see those as often as we should, but the URLs are so long that they make the page too wide for us who use 600×800 screen settings. The solution is to embed the link like this:
< A HREF = “http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government … ” >Rocky Mntn News< /a >
TAKE OUT all the spaces in this example, except the space between the A and the HREF, and note that there are opening and closing quotation marks before and after the URL
Susan, I just learned that we can do this (quoted from dada at last night’s cafe):
LINKS: [ “Boo Trib http://www.boomantribune.com“ ] Delete ” marks” close brackets, get this: Boo Trib
For people who don’t want to learn the more formal way of doing it.
That is way cool. Weird too! 🙂 I’ll add that to my list of handy tags.
Thanks. I’ll do that from now on.
Sorry about the margins, folks. If you want to troll rate my comment to delete it, I’m good with that.
Oh no .. it’s actually okay in this instance because you began a new thread here … where we get into trouble big time is when people do that in a response to a response, as you can imagine.
There are certain tags I use that I can’t remember how to do, so I save them as text files with a name I’ll remember and in a folder specially made for that. For example, when I want to use the Rollbar feature for a long quote, I open my text editor (Notepad, Editpad, whatever you have), find the Rollbar document and copy the code from it.
What’s a rollbar feature?
Jeebus Cripes almighty! What a twit Kenny boy is. More important issues to deal with? What is more important than the fate of our country? We are spiralling down at a rapid pace into Fascism. Period. End of sentence. I am so on the phone to his office. I think we need to concentrate on Reid. Put the pressure on him. to lead. ALso, anyone that has tossed their name into the frey for 08 needs to know that if we do not see a filibuster or at least an attempt at one by the future candidates for the throne, err I mean the White House we will NOT support them, physically or financially.
While we have to generate the pressure on all Senators, the decision to filibuster (or not) will also be a leadership decision.
Call the Leadership Offices!
Harry Reid, NV Democratic Leader (202) 224-3542
Dick Durbin, IL Assistant Democratic Leader (202) 224-2152
Patrick Leahy, VT Ranking Member Judiciary Committee (202) 224-4242
CALL YOUR SENATORS! (And those that need a spine implant)
1-888-355-3588
or
1-888-818-6641
If Repug, tell them “No” to Alito; if Democrat: FILIBUSTER!
If the Washington lines are busy, the Senators’ home office numbers and fax are listed here: CONTACT YOUR SENATORS (Click here)
For extra credit, use the same numbers to call all the 2008 Presidential candidates who are sitting Senators – Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold – and tell them to either LEAD THE FILIBUSTER or FORGET ABOUT YOUR SUPPORT. You can also send that message to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (202-224-2447) and the Democratic National Committee (202-863-8000).
Polls and public opinion are another way to apply pressure — get word out about why Alito needs to be filibustered:
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. (Click here)
People for the American Way has collected nearly 65,000 signatures to send to the Senate, please add yours: Save the Court Petition
John Kerry has endorsed this anti-Alito petition, signers’ names will be read into the Congressional Record:http://www.johnkerry.com/action/alito/
I was lying in bed last night, cause I could not sleep, just thinking. I played this over in my head and tried to get my mind around it. If we all left this land to the republicans, what do you think they would do to each other. I know what they would do. :o) They would eat their own!!! That is the way they are. NO I am not leaving America. I cant do that; however, I do feel very bad for our future as a nation. It is going to get really bad in the near future for all of us, even the john and jane doe who call themselves republicans. They are already with the middle class and poor of this country.. I do not understand why they are so blind and deaf. It just blows my mind to hell…;o(
I’d prefer they just show their inside the beltway spineless souless sack of shit selves –
I wouldn’t mind if they were honest —
“we are too politically incompetent to even PRETEND to be an opposition, so … lets get to Valentine’s Day & the Super Bowl !! Party! “
OR,
“you stupid shits will spend all your time spinning in circles while we lie to you and we live in nice places and have great health care and great retirement – ha ha fools !”
IF they were honest about their political incompetent and incomepent corruption, I could respect them.
these people can’t do anything right – well, unless you include being in charge of the loser party and living well at it for the last 2 decades.
rmm.
From my e-mail
Tom Carper (DE)
Kent Conrad (ND)
Byron Dorgan (ND)
Tim Johnson (SD)
Mary Landrieu (LA)
Blanche Lincoln (AR)
Mark Pryor (AR)
from Democrats.com
9 o’clock eastern time. Time to give Salazar one last call.
I did a diary last night with all of the D Senator’s phone and fax numbers, for easy reference to make it easy to call as many as you can.
FILIBUSTER! Phone and fax numbers
Thanks Janet,
I put a link to it at (your diary) Eat 4 Today just to spread the word a little.
Hat tip to AndiF for introducing me to the Generator Blog
As I have written many times before, this battle was lost a long time ago. Back in May of last year the Democrats had a chance to stand up to the Republicans but chose to back down. That compromise allowed three wingnuts to be confirmed and laid the groundwork for Roberts confirmation.
But it was not the compromise itself that sealed the fate of the Democrats — it was the reaction of the blogsphere to that compromise. Led by Markos at DailyKos, many Democratic supporters applauded the compromise as the best way to avoid defeat. (Because, you see, it is all a game. If you don’t fight, you don’t lose.)
Now, to the surprise of many here, and elsewhere, the Democrats in Congress actually learned the lesson: talk, score points, but don’t fight the Republicans on the field of battle. Democratic supporters have trained their guys to compromise to Bush and the right wing. Now, for some reason, they don’t like the results.
Sorry, its too late. This gang of Democrats will never fight for you.
Our best hope of change is to support a progressive candidate to head the ticket — someone who will lead these cowards around by the nose, threatening them when they lose nerve, rewarding them when they support the agenda.
But first we must actually have an agenda, and then find someone to promote it. For now, stop rewarding the Democrats for failing. When this vote takes place, the leaders in the Senate that failed to successfully oppose Alito should be forced to step down. If there is no consequence for this loss the lesson will simply be reinforced.