True, but the poster actually does kind of accidentally stumble onto a bit of truth with this one -
There is no point in saving the filibuster for a rainy day. The GOP could pull the nuclear trigger at anytime anyway. If not now, when? If not this, what? There will be no better time to take Bush on than now.
The longer they hold off on the filibuster, the more times they kick the can down the road to the next nominee, the less power that option has for them. And from their point of view, George Bush will never be as weak and vulnerable politically as he is right now.
Judging from what I've heard, so far Judge Alito is really wowing the senators in his meetings with them. These meetings and how they go are what make or break these nominations - the reason Harriet Miers had to withdraw was because she just wasn't impressing the senators, and the GOP ones went to the White House and told them she wasn't getting it done.
Alito is totally different, and just like with John Roberts, the Dims are all but wailing that there just won't be anything substantive they can sink their claws into. And all that leaves them with is the rumor-mongering, the veiled anti-Catholic and anti-Italian slurs, the attacks against his family, the "machine gun Sammy" type rulings that they can try to twist and distort and take completely out of context in an attempt to scare the public and the dredging up of Alito's undergrad writings to demonstrate that he's really a liberal in an attempt to turn conservatives against him.
At least until, and only if, they can fina an Anita Hill to come oozing out of the sewers to slime Alito with a bunch of crude innuendo. I think even the Dims realize that the chances of this are slim, and that all the stuff I outlined above is playing a seriously losing hand, trying to bluff a guy holding a straight flush into folding when all you have is a pair of deuces.
In short, if they're going to actually filibuster and not just talk about it, they almost have to do it right now.
Very well reasoned.