There's the famous wedding day scene in "The Godfather" in which Johnny Fontaine (a thinly disguised Sinatra) asks for Don Corleone's help in dealing w/ a movie producer. After seeing Fontaine break into tears, the Don explodes. He shouts: "You can act like a man!" After calming down, the Don tells Fontaine that he will help him out, but he also makes it clear that Fontaine will have to stand up for himself.
The Dems have repeatedly faced their Johnny Fontaine moments for at least 15 years now, and they've failed on almost every occasion. They're facing their direst one of all right now.
The Dems got rolled on the Thomas nomination in 1991. They got rolled in the 1994 elections. They REALLY got rolled here in FL in 2000. They got rolled in the 2002 elections. They got rolled in the 2004 elections. The Rethugs, based upon past experience, assume that they will be able to roll the Dems still again now.
This battle has far more to do w/ basic calculations about power than it has to do w/ pressure from the religious right. Yes, the Rethugs have to feed raw meat to their base, but that's not their primary motivation here. As Jon Stewart said during their convention, their basic theme is: "What are you going to do about it?" On too many occasions for too many years, the Dem response to this question has been: "Not much."
I hope that Specter and Chaffee and Collins and Snowe come to their senses and step away from the precipice here, but in a way, I don't care if they do. Even stripped of the judicial filibuster, there's a whole lot that a determined Senate minority can do to make the majority's life miserable. There are still many procedural devices that a creative minority can utilize to bring the body to a halt.
He's easy to pick on, but Joe Biden, in many ways, represents everything that's wrong w/ the Dem approach. He's an effective politician whose heart is in the right place, but he's far too quick to accomodate people who have no interest in accomodation. He is getting a pretty serious wake-up call right now, and he and others like him need to react appropriately.
The Rethugs have too many Santorums, and the Dems have too many Liebermans. It's time for the Dems to put some steel in their collective spines and speak to the Santorums in the only language that they understand.