Sunday, January 15, 2006

Senator Chamberlain to the rescue

Feinstein Warns Against Alito Filibuster

A Democrat who plans to vote against Samuel Alito sided on Sunday with a Republican colleague on the Senate Judiciary Committee in cautioning against a filibuster of the Supreme Court nominee.

"I do not see a likelihood of a filibuster," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "This might be a man I disagree with, but it doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court."

She said she will not vote to confirm the appeals court judge, based on his conservative record. But she acknowledged that nothing emerged during last week's hearings to justify any organized action by Democrats to stall the nomination.

"If there's a filibuster of this man based on his qualifications, there would be a huge backlash in this country," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. He is one of 14 centrist senators who defused the Senate's showdown over judicial filibusters last year, saying such a tactic is justified only under extraordinary circumstances.
...
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would not rule out a filibuster, saying committee Democrats were still going through the hearing transcripts and awaiting answers to written questions.

"It's premature to say anything till we fully assess the record," said Schumer, who appeared with Graham on "Fox News Sunday."

But Feinstein, who said she was concerned about Alito's conservative record on abortion rights and deference to executive power, acknowledged the 15-year appellate judge had the legal credentials to serve on the Supreme Court.

"I was impressed with his ability to maintain a very even demeanor," she said on CBS' "Face the Nation."


The utter, fatal wrongheadedness on display here leaves me virtually speechless with rage.

Even demeanor? At least the men who will inter our Constitution will sound nice.

Not extraordinary? Sure, just the end of our form of government.

Apt choice of words, Dr. Bloor, but I will not talk you back into this fold. I now officially include myself out of the most costly and important fold since Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement.

RIP, American republic
1788-2006

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Clearly all the senators see the SCOTUS nomination hearing as a hazing with the candidate becoming more qualifed for having 'endured' it. While Alito lacked the arrogance of Gonzales and Condi and hasn't the blue-contact-ed photographic memory of Roberts, he seemed 'capable', and with the presence of the non-high-fashion spouse, just a regular guy.

Besides, the Dems are tired. Just watching Murtha actually function is 'hard work'.

10:56 PM  
Blogger Eric Soderstrom said...

I think pending investigations of Administration officals are extraordinary circumstances and the filibuster should happen.

Backlash? I don't get that. The Dems should be riding a wave right now.

I hate to say it, but if the Democrats keep this up, I am going to go back to voting my conscience and "wasting" my vote on a Green Party candidate. "Anybody but Bush" won't fly in the next election, and it didn't work in the last one either.

Alternet has a Comsky interview up this week:

http://www.alternet.org/story/30487

In it, he points out that there really is no opposition party. I agree. And the longer the Deomcrats sit on their hands and say nothing, the more I will agree with him.

The silence of the Deomcratic party is beyond my comprehension. The Kerry campaign refused to go dirty, even in retaliation for the Swift Boat attacks, and that was a disaster. I'm not wearing my tin foil hat, but is it possible that some sort of media blackout is contributing to the silence? I mean we hear more lately than we would have two years ago, so I thought maybe the MSM was getting some teeth. Anyone who knows more about the media than I do have any comments on this?

11:36 PM  

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