This thread is for continued discussion of the ongoing Senate debate on the Alito cloture vote and his nomination.
[UPDATE: Front page open thread here. I personally think there should be an open thread in the diaries too.]
[4:10 PM EST: Sen. Kennedy finally turning up the rhetorical heat.]
[4:15 PM: Senators Specter and Frist coming up.]
Here's the letter I'm sending out to my friends:
Now is the time to stop Alito from carving in stone the dangerous and radical ideology of the Bush presidency. In a few hours it may be too late. But it is not yet now: just a few more Democratic Senators need to hear from their constituents, from us that they should not vote to invoke cloture on the debate over Alito.
Call your Senators, if they are Democrats or believe in a woman's right to choose, and ask them to either vote against cloture or to abstain from doing so -- to allow the debate on Alito to continue. Call 1-888-355-3588.
The Senate should be demanding more respect and answers from Bush before kowtowing to him by agreeing to rubber-stamp Alito. Senators like Joe Lieberman (Conn.), Ken Salazar (Col.), and Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) should be standing up and saying "Where is the accountability for your sidestepping of FISA, the law, the Constitution to wiretap Americans?" "What have been your dealings with the felonious Jack Abramoff?" "When will you stop corrupting and silencing our scientists?" Until the many, many questions like these such Senators should not show deference to the president who shows no respect for the law.
Voting for cloture is a vote against other Democrats in favor of the President on the eve of Bush's biggest propaganda moment of the year, the State of the Union address.
Those in the Gang of 14--like Lieberman, Salazar, Byrd, Nelson--should recognize that when Lindsay Graham helped coach Alito before he appeared before the Judiciary Committee, any covenant they had made with Graham was broken.
Any Democrat who rightly believes that Alito will strip rights from women, minorities, the poor, and strip protections from the environment, workers, citizens, in favor of an imperial presidency and unrestricted corporate power, should not vote to end debate on this dangerous nominee.
Call your Senators, if they are Democrats or believe in a woman's right to choose, and ask them to either vote against cloture or to abstain from doing so -- to allow the debate on Alito to continue. Call 1-888-355-3588.