Back in 1998, a group of hard right republicans said that they had to impeach Clinton at any cost! The more rational membership said to hold off, it would hurt the party, but the radicals persisted. It cost them seats in the midterm elections, Newt Gingrich's speakership, and the Senate in 2000, and almost the presidency that year, too.
Now, there is a group of hard left Democrats that want to try and filibuster Alito at any cost... This strategy could hurt the party more than help.... Why? because our senators failed to make the case... more below the fold...
Forget the "nuclear option" for the moment... in order to "hang your hat", you need a nail to hang it on... Scalito brought with him plenty of nails that we could have driven into his proverbial coffin, but the fact is, our incompetent senators failed to hammer a single nail into the wall of public opinion to hang the "Filibuster Hat".
Oh, our senators ran around with hammers, they just forgot to bring the nails... there were so many nails to hammer into Scalito, but all our senators did was nick the furniture. They didn't even make a dent in that... They nitpicked around the edges, as democrats always do, never tackling the real issues head on, and never forcing the judge to show his true colors (or demonstrate that he was hiding them).
Not all of it is their fault. Obviously, the Republican political machine was excellent in preparing this guy, but the fact is: Our Senators failed to make the case for a filibuster... they failed to get that nail in the wall to hang the "Filibuster Hat".
Last time someone tried to hang the "Impeachement Hat" with no nail, the results were disasterous! The public viewed the party as excessivly partisan and vindictive, and punished them at the polls.
Yeah we are fighting for something real, and it's a lot more than abortion.... Alito has the potential do destroy the American Dream as we know it...
The problem is America doesn't know it. And it's our fault. We never made the case. We never put the nail in the wall. We lost. America lost.
So, forget about hanging the "Filibuster Hat". There is nowhere for it to go. All we'll do is end up ruining the hat and hurting the party. If we had a nail on the wall of public opinion to hang that hat, I'd be all for the filibuster. But, unfortunately, we don't.
Thanks,
Mike