A lot of folks here and elsewhere have talked about the need to filibuster the Alito nomination, and there has been a lot of vote-counting to determine whether there are enough votes (41) to sustain one. LiberalOasis has rightly described the case of 41 "no" votes with no filibuster as
the worst-case Alito scenario (for the Dems' reputation).
I'll go one better: girded with today's pro-filibuster editorial in the NY Times, Democratic senators should filibuster right now and damn the vote count. All it takes is one heroic Jefferson Smith to get the ball rolling and force the other senators to fall into line one way or the other.
Even if the Republicans can break the filibuster -- hell, even if they "go nuclear" (especially if they go nuclear) -- it's still a can't-lose move for those senators courageous and principled enough to do it.