Getting confirmed to the Supreme Court can be a difficult and highly political process. Associate Justice Samuel Alito certainly understands that as well as anyone. But he also stressed over and over again in his confirmation hearings that he would seek to abide by the law and the constitution, and not by any preconceived political agenda.  

Well, OK. Then why does he want to meet with James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family and one of the top leaders of the Christian Right?  

It startles me that Alito's day of nomination and his day of confirmation have twice collided with the parting final legacy of King and Rosa Parks — and, unheralded, with the Warren Court of the 1950s that Alito has pounced on for its so-called activism.

In 1956, a firebomb rocked the home of Coretta and Martin L. King at the start of the bus boycott that Parks and King launched.

Parks and MLK worked together, you remember, in Montgomery to stop the practice of separate rows on buses for black and white riders.  GW Bush acknowledged MLK and Parks together on the birthday of MLK 2 weeks ago and Tuesday in his SOTU.

Bush picked the same day Rosa Parks' body was moved to lie in state at the Capitol to nominate and laud Sam Alito to be the next Supreme Court justice.  Alito dutifully paid a visit to the rotunda to show respect for Rosa Parks. What neither man said in their remarks that day marks a stunning omission:

Rosa Parks' struggle bore its fruit on the day the "activist" Supreme Court decided Browder v. Gayle, an entire year after Rosa's arrest, when the Court ordered a stop to separate seats on buses in the winter of 1956.

Bill Frist (R-TN) with Alito at the
Capitol Rotunda, Oct. 31, 2005

According to those who have gotten through to their offices, Dayton will vote no to cloture, and Pryor will abstain.

Could the Red Sea be parting?

This is outstanding, if the news (and the tally) holds until 4:00.

Current votes:  57/37 posted on C-SPAN.

Still undecided:  Bayh and Cantwell.

Post your updates here.

Tomorrow, you will vote on whether to end debate on the nomination of Samuel Alito.  In an atmosphere where too many mask their intentions in platitudes and coy terms, allow me to blunt. You dropped the ball. Before the hearings, you failed to establish a clear strategy approaching this nomination. At the hearings, you tried, but failed to convey to the American people how disastrous Alito's record really is. After the hearings, it became each member for himself. And finally, you let the media confirm this man without question.

You dropped the ball, and it would have been easy for us to heed the Republican call and give up. But when you dropped the ball, Senators, we picked it up. The second you approached us for help, we pounced into action.  We leaped to action not because we were sure of victory. We are the reality-based community, after all. We know the numbers are against us. We know the chances of a successful filibuster are near zero.  But we also know that if you don't stand up for your beliefs when so much is at stake, rhetoric of opposition rings painfully hollow.

I see reports of Senators waivering on the filibuster because of its "political ramifications." Some of you are afraid of being labeled "obstructionist" by the media.  I remind you, Senators, the American people want you to block this nomination. Some 56% of Americans say Alito should not be confirmed if he'll overturn Roe. 52% of Americans think the President should be impeached if he wiretapped Americans without a warrant--yet you're going to allow a judge who thinks there are virtually no limits to Executive Power on the highest court of our land? Had the media had done its job of informing the public about Alito's record rather than running it through the GOP-filter and sanitizing it for public consumption, I guarantee you the outcry against Alito would far surpass that of any other Supreme Court Nominee.

Our forefathers did not contemplate confirmation of a Justice "with the advice and consent of the media."   Ignore the pundits and listen to your conscience. Does standing up against Samuel Alito feel like "obstructionism"--or does it feel like one of the last stands against an unprecedented aggrandizement of executive power?  Does it feel like "politics," or does it feel like breathing life into our system of checks and balances?

More below...

Update [2006-1-28 16:19:59 by sdf]: georgia10 has the lastest state of the field over at The Big Orange:

This is a follow-up to Armando's great posts this morning on the filibuster. Improbable? Yeah. Impossible? Never. Take 15 minutes out of your weekend for democracy's sake. Track the updates on the cloture count here. Here is the latest update: NO on cloture (announced support for a filibuster):

Barbara Boxer (D- CA)
Dianne Feinstein (D- CA)
Christopher J. Dodd (D- CT)
Richard J. Durbin (D- IL)
John F. Kerry (D- MA)
Edward M. Kennedy (D- MA)
Paul S. Sarbanes (D- MD)
Debbie A. Stabenow (D- MI)
Harry Reid (D- NV)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D- NY)
Charles Schumer (D- NY)
Ron Wyden (D- OR)
Russell D. Feingold (D- WI)
Barack Obama (D-IL)
Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

Senators To Call:

Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D- AR), 202-224-4843
Joseph I. Lieberman (D- CT), 202-224-4041
Thomas R. Carper (D- DE), 202-224-2441
Daniel K. Inouye (D- HI), 202-224-3934
Tom Harkin (D- IA), 202-224-3254
Evan Bayh (D- IN), 202-224-5623
Barbara A. Mikulski (D- MD), 202-224-4654
Carl Levin (D- MI), 202-224-6221
Mark Dayton (D- MN), 202-224-3244
Max Baucus (D- MT), 202-224-2651
Frank Lautenberg (D- NJ), 202-224-3224
Jeff Bingaman (D- NM), 202-224-5521
Jack Reed (D- RI), 202-224-4642
Patrick J. Leahy (D- VT), 202-224-4242
Maria Cantwell (D- WA), 202-224-3441
Patty Murray (D- WA), 202-224-2621
Herb Kohl (D- WI), 202-224-5653
John D. Rockefeller, IV (D- WV), 202-224-6472
James M. Jeffords (I- VT), 202-224-5141
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D- DE) , 202-224-5042
Bill Nelson (D- FL), 202-224-5274
Daniel K. Akaka (D- HI), 202-224-6361
Mary Landrieu (D- LA), 202-224-5824
Byron L. Dorgan (D- ND), 202-224-2551
Olympia Snowe (R- ME), 202-224-5344

The bold are those in most need of some convincing. Senators Biden, Nelson, Akaka, Landrieu, Dorgan, and Snowe have stated they would likely not support a filibuster. Not a firm stance, like Chaffee, Salazar, Pryor, and Conrad, so there is reason to keep calling them.

Georgia has more details over there, so go take a look.
Original post below the fold:

Kerry's office has confirmed the Senator's intent to block Samuel Alito's nomination to SCOTUS by extending debate.

=========
UPDATE - The Democrats do not have to show a full 41 votes to slow this train down. The burden is on Bill Frist to round up 60 affirmative votes to proceed to confirm a nominee. The magic number is 60, not 41. Nearly all recent judicial nominees, for lower court and SCOTUS, gained this level of support, either for cloture or for the actual nomination. It is quite rare for a court nominee to prevail with less than 60 "yeas."   If some Democrats would rather abstain than vote no for cloture, then let Frist pull together a bipartisan consensus for this nominee, as many prior appointees have needed in the past.

Action Item:  Recommend constituents work on bolstering support and recruiting a member of the Gang of 14 to join in on the filibuster, such as Inouye, Pryor, and possibly Joe Lieberman (as remote as the likelihood may be for Joe L.) Salazar has already declined, as of Wednesday. A delay of this nominee is warranted at least until we find out how the President's agencies were spying on ordinary non-terrorist citizens.   (And why did the IRS last year start collecting party ID data on taxpayers?! An outrage!!)    Vote no or "present," do not vote yes for cloture.

Remember Senator Orrin Hatch's great performance during the Clarence Thomas confirmation proceedings?  

In between pouting and childish tantrums he managed, with help from Arlen Spector, to trash Anita Hill when it was later confirmed by David Brock, who was helping lead the smear brigade and later turned on the radical right, that the law professor was telling the truth.

It was Hatch who hatched a booby hatch theory that Hill's testimony describing devout rightist Thomas's penchant for pornography stemmed from plagiarizing the famous seventies' book and later film, The Exorcist.  Hatch ultimately got his wish to have Thomas confirmed, where he has become a reliable rubber stamp marching to the tune of the patriarch of judicial reaction, Antonin Scalia.

Cross Hatch's path by daring to take an opposing view and he is quick to label you a "propagandist", a classic case of being called ugly by a frog.  He is currently singing his familiar tune again pertaining to Samuel Alito, Jr.  

"Under any reasonable, objective or traditional standard, the Senate would overwhelmingly confirm this exceptional nominee," the Utah solon declared in his traditional holier than thou fashion.

The daily stories on the AP wire are thick with the certainty, the inevitability of the confirmation of Radical Judicial Activist Samuel Alito.  The possibility of a filibuster, if mentioned at all, is either hidden at the bottom or dismissed with a quick, "it is clear that the Democrats don't have the stomach for that."  My tendency as I've read these stories is to sigh, shake my head, and chalk up yet another instance of the SCLM parroting Republican propaganda points, Republican truthiness.

A filibuster is still possible, given the adamant opposition of many good Senate Democrats to Alito.  Most have not ruled it out.  But there are indications that at least a few Democrats, if not a whole bunch of them, are going to vote "No" on Alito but will not support a filibuster.  To which I want to say, just to be clear:

Voting "No" on Alito but "Yes" on cloture is the same as voting "Yes" on Alito.  No matter what they say.  No matter how many speeches they give.  When a filibuster is your only option to stopping the nomination, and you know that, then you must support a filibuster -- unless you just don't care.

(Some may recall that Lieberman did exactly this on the bankruptcy bill -- that is, he voted for closure and against the bill, when it was more than clear that a filibuster was the only way to stop it.)

While we have to generate the pressure on all Senators, the decision to filibuster (or not) will also be a leadership decision. Call the Leadership Offices! Harry Reid, NV Democratic Leader (202) 224-3542

Dick Durbin, IL Assistant Democratic Leader (202) 224-2152

Patrick Leahy, VT Ranking Member Judiciary Committee (202) 224-4242

Republican senators that have not yet come out in support of Alito:

Phone numbers:

1-888-355-3588

or

1-888-818-6641

Chafee, Lincoln- (R - RI)

Collins, Susan- (R - ME)

Snowe, Olympia- (R - ME)

Stevens, Ted- (R - AK) (Yeah, him)

And Jeffords, James- (I - VT) hasn't declared his position yet.

Senators leaning toward filibuster, call and urge them on: 1-888-355-3588

or

1-888-818-6641

Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas

Mark Pryor, Arkansas

Diane Feinstein, California

Joe Lieberman, Connecticut

Joe Biden, Delaware

Barack Obama, Illinois

Mary Landrieu, Louisiana

Ben Nelson, Nebraska

Kent Conrad, North Dakota

Tim Johnson, South Dakota

John Kerry has a new anti-Alito petition and will be entering the gathered signatures into the Congressional Record!  Please sign it and share it far and wide.

Dear Friend,

I've studied Judge Alito's legal record. I met with him one-on-one. After all this, I am left with one simple conclusion: if Judge Alito becomes Supreme Court Justice Alito, he will move the Court backwards.

I will vote against Judge Alito's confirmation, and I hope a majority of Senators choose to join us on the Senate floor, voting and speaking out against him. I know we face tough odds, but this is an important fight.

The bottom line is Judge Alito cannot be trusted on the Supreme Court. We can't trust him to stand up to government abuse of power. We can't trust him to ensure all citizens enjoy equal protection under the law. We can't trust him to protect our right to privacy. We can't trust him to defend mainstream American values.

To muster enough Senators to defeat Judge Alito, the American people have to make it clear that they are against his nomination. That's where you come in. By speaking out, you will help us convince other Senators to join our fight.

We can do this! Be sure to also check out SusanHu's great diary about some Senators who need that extra nudge to do the right thing.

[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally and Daily Kos]

oh, god, i hope not... my gut tells me that our country is in extremely serious trouble and that, with an alito confirmation, we may just be seeing bushco's endgame...

robert parry of consortium news, a man who holds my deepest respect, seems to be just as concerned as i am...

If confirmed, Samuel Alito and his theory of a near-dictatorial "unitary executive" could doom the American democratic Republic and make George W. Bush a strongman with no meaningful checks and balances. With the fate of the U.S. Constitution in the balance, it's hard to believe that no senator is prepared to filibuster Alito's nomination. But even if there's only one senator brave enough to grab the floor and explain the stakes to the American people, one might be enough to start a national political rebirth.

"President Bush said Alito was 'imminently qualified.' Then he said 'Unless imminently means not.'" --Conan O'Brien

It's time I came out of the closet. Although many of you know me as judybrowni (or judybrownibot) the annoyingly persistent poster of links to anti-Alito actions, in real life I'm the mild-mannered (well, actually kinda bitchy) editor of a series of joke books (which include The Comedy Thesaurus).

I come from a yellow-dog Democrat family (of at least four generations back), who also believed in the power of humor. As Sigmund Freud wrote in his book, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, "Every joke is a judgement."

And I've even injected my general interest joke books with a progressive slant.

So much so, that I once received a letter from a wingnut with time on his hands, who complained that he'd counted 50 jokes in one of my books with a liberal bias. To which I replied, "If we have to deal with your dangerous clown of a President, the least you can do is take a joke -- or 50 of them."

Now that I've revealed myself, I've decided to combine my avocation with my vocation: every time I hit you up with an action, I'll reward you with jokes.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings (and I'm not even humming yet.)

We may not be able to sway even some Democrat senators, but we can let them all know where we stand.

As long as we still have that right, let's exercise it:

If Repug, tell them "No" to Alito; if Democrat: FILIBUSTER!

CALL YOUR TWO SENATORS

John Edwards has endorsed this petition for FILIBUSTER!

People for the American Way has collected over 60,000 signatures to send to the Senate, please add yours:Save the Court Petition

John A. is certainly right (though I don't agree that all Dems are equally to blame), as is profmarcus, that after much anticipation of a battle over Alito, the remarks emerging from the Democrats  (or I would emphasize some Democrats) represent a profound failure of leadership.  I have, perhaps through a spasm of wishful thinking, been willing to attribute the reports of "glum Democrats" to a SCLM eager to parrot the latest administration line, but it's impossible to ignore the remarks of prominent Dems this weekend.

We Californians have long since learned not to be disappointed with (or at least not surprised by) Dianne Feinstein's shortcomings, her self-important forays into a "reasonableness" that would be best left for fellow self-important blowhards such as Biden and Lieberman.  Still (as Georgia10 noted over at Kos), Feinstein's comments Sunday morning are both pathetic and sadly telling:

[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally]

these are enough to gag a maggot... leading up to the hearings, you have plenty of time to educate the public and your constitutents, you have plenty of time to research and assemble your arguments... then, when the most dangerous supreme court nominee in the nation's history is right there in front of you, you have an unparalleled opportunity to exercise leadership, the kind of leadership this country is desperate for... and, now that you've blown it, THIS is what you have to say...? pathetic and disgusting...