Would you lead the party Al? You are after all our legitimate president. You should lead the country and the party and show an alternative to the current Administration. We need national leadership and we need it now.
After listening to Al Gore's tremendous speech today I believe our chances for attempting to do something to stop Alito just went way up. Al Gore's energy, passion and plain-spoken call for oversight and a special counsel will stir up the political debate this week. A new week, a new news cycle and new conventional wisdom.
Diane Feinstein was in the audience, Gore mentioned her by name. I think he was trying to tell her to support a filibuster. To provide oversight, to save our Constitutional Republic.
Last week's "Shoe-in Alito" news cycle is over, and this is a new week and it's started out with a rousing call to arms for congressional oversight. Al Gore's words will resonate with the Democrats, like Harry Reid who may very well be planning to try to stop Alito.
We don't need to start off with 41 votes. We get 30 hours debate no matter what. That's 30 hours to sway the middle. 30 amazing hours to tell America what Gore just told us on Cspan. 30 hours of speeches like the one Gore just gave. What an amazing opportunity!
I guarantee you that if its attempted by the end of those 30 hours we will have 41 votes.
Many have said even if we block Alito, Bush will just nominate someone worse. I think if we lose this, if we let this one go, well then the next one will be worse, more extreme. It lowers the bar on the court, it sets a precedent that they can nominate anyone as long as they put up a brick wall of obfuscation at the hearing. When has appeasement ever worked against reactionaries? If we filibuster and we win, the next judge, if the special counsel has not indicted them all and they get to appoint the next judge, he will be a moderate justice.
If we let Alito on the court, the next one maybe that judge with the giant 10 commandments statue, Judge Roy Moore :)
Even if we try and get nuked consider this by Elwood Dowd:
If the Nuclear Option survives with 51-55 GOP votes we have not kept Alito off the Court. But have we achieved anything? How about:
* Keeping faith with Democratic activists who oppose Alito
* Making the Alito installation clearly a Republican, not bi-partisan, move. Even a part-line vote without a filibuster would leave the Dems complicit in his appointment
* Highlighting a further Republican abuse of power in the Nuclear Option itself
* Ending this limbo in which the viability of the filibuster is in doubt, and Senators are unsure of what their options are
* Putting Lincoln Chafee, Olympia Snowe, and Mike DeWine on the record in support of a right-wing Justice
* Further stressing the divisions between GOP 'moderates' and GOP true believers
* Underlining the serious issues surrounding Alito: both untrammeled executive power and privacy / choice
Nothing to sneeze at.
Veto-Alito.com