http://www.rollcall.com/...
Ugh, I swear the Dems are afraid to do anything. Sort of like a prevent defense in football. Only all a prevent defense does is prevent victory.
Story after fold.
"Roll Call" behind the scenes: Dems angry with Kerry re. failed filibuster
Failed Filibuster Bid Worries Democrats
By John Stanton
Roll Call Staff
January 31, 2006
Although the Senate on Monday soundly defeated the 11th-hour decision by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to push for a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito, some Democrats worry privately that the failed filibuster could have long-term effects on the party's ability to regain control of the chamber in November....
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Officially, Kerry's Democratic colleagues have avoided directly criticizing Kerry or addressing frustrations with its 2004 presidential candidate....Privately, however, many Democratic aides and lawmakers -- including those who adamantly oppose Alito's nomination -- expressed growing frustration with Kerry....
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"While I don't think it will amount to a hill of beans in the end, the White House should send him a bouquet of flowers for this," one senior aide said, adding that "the timing couldn't have been worse ... for a Member like this to open us up to criticism of being a divided party."...
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Although Kerry's announcement Friday, made while the he was on a trip to Switzerland, stating that he would champion liberal calls for a filibuster, won praise from hard-line Web loggers and left-leaning activists, it prompted significant hand-wringing by party officials.
Democratic aides in the Senate said that many within the party were particularly surprised, since Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had asked his colleagues not to attempt a filibuster, arguing that the party would be better served by focusing on the GOP's recent spate of ethics controversies and by trying to frame today's State of the Union address in a favorable way...."The story would have been that Reid kept 90 percent of the Democrats together, which would have been a great story," this source said.
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Also, there is a new Kerry email, called "Standing Firm"
Dear XXXXX,
Yesterday, 25 Democratic Senators joined our effort to filibuster the Alito nomination -- that's more votes to filibuster the Alito nomination than there were votes against Justice Roberts' nomination itself just a few months ago.
This morning, 42 Senators voted against Alito's nomination. That's the highest number of votes against any Supreme Court nominee since Clarence Thomas in 1991.
It's hard to lose -- but it's important to fight for what we believe in. I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of you who signed our petitions, called your senators, wrote letters to the editor and, most important, refused to stand silent while President Bush worked to pack the highest court in the land with far right ideologues. We fought a fight that needed fighting.
We made sure the nation knew the truth about the Alito nomination. We made sure America heard how a right wing ideological coup sandbagged Harriet Miers' nomination and replaced her with Judge Alito. No one will be able to say, in five to ten years, that he or she is surprised by the decisions Judge Alito makes from the bench. People who believe in privacy rights, who fight for the rights of the most disadvantaged, who believe in balancing the power between the President and Congress had to take a stand.
We also made it clear to the Bush administration that no matter what they throw at us in 2006 -- whether it's extreme nominees, special interest giveaways, shortsighted policy or Swift Boat-style attacks against Democratic candidates -- we will never surrender. We will always fight back.
Now, we must be clear about something else. Winning the 2006 congressional elections is the only way to change the dangerous path George W. Bush has put us on. We need to defeat those Republicans who have overlooked this administration's incompetence, turned a blind eye to its failures, and lent a helping hand to its dangerous ideology.
Together, we have to act to make sure 2006 is the year Americans, led by Democrats, stand up to incompetence, cronyism and corruption, take back Congress, and get our nation moving in the right direction again.
I look forward to fighting alongside you.
Sincerely,
John Kerry