Armando and others have wisely focused attention on generating mail/phone/fax messages to our Senate, urging "NO" votes on Alito. Despite some good signs, however, this is no time for complacency: some Democratic senators have come around, but we could easily fall one or two short of 41. And even Harry Reid is being apologetic these days. Therefore, the plan for Armando and some others to go to DC in person, as "emissaries", still demands serious consideration. Personal contact still trumps mere bloggery, believe me...
1. Daily Kos will not "taint" filibustering
I think a concern of Armando (and others) is that a visit from DKos members might associate filibustering with "those wacky commie bloggers" or such. However, the media have already done this; I don't have the link, but a recent DKos diary quoted some Lieberman flunky who wrote in the Wall Street Journal an article calling out georgia10 and DHinMI by name for their posts in favor of filibuster or against Alito.
(more filibuster below fold)
Therefore, if anyone wants to keep the public name of DKos away from filibustering: it's too late already. If we have already been "targeted" by the MSM and their cronies, may as well turn the lemon into lemonade and make the most of it. (Am still hoping georgia10 can manage a brief "field trip" away from law school...)
And by the way, several Daily Kos bloggers in "nice" suits/dresses/etc., visiting Harry Reid and friends and acting articulate and dignified rather than living down to the "Che Guevara's pajama pundits" image that some people have of DKos, could actually help DKos' public image too. About time.
2. "It's too late to visit DC--we're dead anyway"
Are you nuts?
3. Petition
In my recent diary Send "Armando-plus" to DC, w/ or w/out DKos money (which has many other details and comments, by the way), I mentioned that a minimalist version of the mission could be undertaken, e.g., not with any financial contributions from DKos members, nor any official (and regulatable) lobbying, nor a whole lot of people, nor a petition.
Still, a petition of DKos members that their senators filibuster, a petition Armando and friends could print out and take to Washington, would be nice. Would, say, Meteor Blades be up to writing one? Or anyone else, of course, but I imagine he could produce a stirring one.
Petition or not, though, there should still be an in-person visit of some kind. Being just a blog or radio voice, after all, condemns you to a sort of spectral, Wizard-of-Oz (or Wizard-of-Kos) kind of nonpersonhood. Whose cure is appearing live and in person.
4. Points
A party going to DC (e.g., Armando, georgia10, Meteor Blades, and some local DC DKos members with law degrees) might want to emphasize
a. Integrity. Filibustering is the right thing to do. "Opposition parties" oppose, not lick the mud off their oppressor's boots...
b. Benefits. Filibustering could rally the party, and, yes, maybe even defeat Alito.
True, filibuster could trigger the "nuclear option", but sometimes is it better to be castrated (...) by someone else, than for the senators to castrate themselves by not filibustering; assuming you have to choose between two evils. "Better to die on your feet than live on your knees..."
c. Funding. Finally, the Senators should be apprised that if they do not vote "NO" and also filibuster, DKos members will have very, very little inclination to fund anyone who caves in. Rather, the money will in all likelihood flow, in copious amounts, to the primary challengers of the Democratic "Benedict Arnolds".
If the Senate do not understand conscience, they will probably understand cash, i.e., that the many members of the blogosphere do not intend to fund losers or betrayers. We're not into that. At. All.
As for some tactical suggestions or talking points:
d. Alito is the new Bork; and more dangerous than New Coke
Self-explanatory. (The Bork meme will also: let us ask Dems, "Why can't you stop Bork like your predecessors did?"; and also ask the Repubs, "Why are you trying to foist another Bork on us?"
e. Hold the FISA hearings first if possible
Also self-explanatory.
f. Frist is an obstructionist
And: what is Frist afraid of? Why is he trying to close off and obstruct Alito-related debate on the Senate floor? Is this Russia or Cuba? The Democrats are not making enough of this point.
There are other points, but those are some of the main ones.
(By the way, even if a Daily Kos frontpager visit to DC does not produce a filibuster, it could at least help produce several more "NO" votes, which is a very good thing in itself.)
5. Castro and Alito
This article by dissidents notes of Castro's Cuban judiciary,
"In handling these cases, Cuban judiciary is using the so called facilitated procedure which...should be applied only in "exceptional circumstances".
It is evident that the simplified procedure fits best the repressive policy pursued by the central government of the country.
...We strongly protest against a disproportionate cut in the length of legal procedures related to the cases against our arrested fellow citizens which made them totally "defenseless" before the Cuban judiciary.
...In this critical hour for our country, we re-affirm our common position and appeal to all our fellow citizens to join our declaration."
The American judiciary under Alito might not be much better than the Cuban judiciary under Castro, at least in spirit. Under the "exceptional/extraordinary circumstances" that history is offering us, circumstances not wholly unlike those of the Cuban dissidents protesting their rubber-stamp judiciary, I would urge any potential DKos visitors on a pro-filibuster mission to DC to conquer any stomach butterflies and step up to the plate, as they could make a real difference for the better, if a well-organized excursion to Washington and the Senate were mounted.
It would be pretty sad if prominent Daily Kos members were able to visit their nation's capital but did not, resulting in a narrow loss of the ability to filibuster and defeat Alito. America under BorkScThomasAlito would start to look worse to itself and to the whole world, to whom we also have responsibility. In closing, let me note, "!Cuba libre y los Estados Unidos también!! !Ya basta! !!Viva el filibustero!!"