Now Frist has to find 60 yes votes by Monday. Support Kerry's call to veto Alito. 
=========
UPDATE - The Democrats do not have to show a full 41 votes to slow this train down. The burden is on Bill Frist to round up 60 affirmative votes to proceed to confirm a nominee. The magic number is 60, not 41. Nearly all recent judicial nominees, for lower court and SCOTUS, gained this level of support, either for cloture or for the actual nomination. It is quite rare for a court nominee to prevail with less than 60 "yeas." If some Democrats would rather abstain than vote no for cloture, then let Frist pull together a bipartisan consensus for this nominee, as many prior appointees have needed in the past.
Action Item: Recommend constituents work on bolstering support and recruiting a member of the Gang of 14 to join in on the filibuster, such as Inouye, Pryor, and possibly Joe Lieberman (as remote as the likelihood may be for Joe L.) Salazar has already declined, as of Wednesday. A delay of this nominee is warranted at least until we find out how the President's agencies were spying on ordinary non-terrorist citizens. (And why did the IRS last year start collecting party ID data on taxpayers?! An outrage!!) Vote no or "present," do not vote yes for cloture.
Additionally, Judge Alito has a strikingly anti-worker record, to the point of lone dissent to deny a worker full credit earned over all the years he worked that would entitle him to a full pension benefit.
Alito's decisions are harsh and stingy on the issues of workers' rights, pension rights and safety regulation.
He is all but dismissive of working-man (or -woman) financial concerns. The pension case is an ominous bellwether. (The more recent concerns about unbridled presidential power, coupled with deception, makes this an extraordinary moment that may transcend even these more commonplace concerns.)
Also in dissent, Alito wrote to limit applicability of mining oversight to exempt coal refuse loading activity and sites from the reporting and supervisory rules set by MSHA.
If a President selects a nominee who can peel away no more than 2 or 3 affirmative votes from the opposing party, that is an extraordinary departure from recent successful nominees.
In these circumstances, a "No" vote is meaningless unless it is buttressed with a filibuster.
=============
Remember, Stephen Breyer needed to overcome 2 Republican stymieing cloture votes before he could join the 1st Circuit Court in 1980. The first vote attempt by Democrats failed to win. The second vote succeeded, 68-28.
-->>> Then Breyer was confirmed 80 to 10. Let Bush select a judge who can garner bipartisan support as well.
=============
Call and email your senators! Join the Kerry filibuster.
KEYWORDS: Samuel Alito, filibuster, John Kerry
Sign up for a Complimentary Member Account... Join the community! It's fast. And it'll allow you to take advantage of all this site's great features!
| < The Truth About Alito (with Jokes) | Intelligent Deception Part II: The Denial Lobby > |
