Posted on 11/20/2005 12:22:45 AM PST by KerryOnNoMore
Senate Democrats will lead the opposition to Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination, but a handful of Republican moderates could ultimately decide its outcome, several analysts and lawmakers said yesterday.
The roughly half-dozen GOP senators who support abortion rights are scrutinizing Alito's dissent in a major 1991 abortion case. If they determine that his judicial record or his answers to questions signal a willingness to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion, they will fall under heavy pressure to oppose him, said congressional scholars and analysts.
With Republicans holding 55 of the Senate's 100 seats -- and with Democrats raising the possibility of a filibuster, in which 41 senators could prevent a confirmation vote -- Alito can withstand few Republican defections if Democrats solidly oppose him. That is by no means certain, experts note, but it is possible.
"I think the moderate, or pro-choice, Republicans will likely determine the fate of this nomination," said University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional expert.
Julian E. Zelizer, a Boston University history professor who has written extensively on Congress, agreed. "This nomination is going to put pro-choice Republican senators in an extremely uncomfortable position," he said. "The reality is that most Republicans who are not strong pro-life advocates were much happier when the abortion issue was not on the front pages."
But Alito's nomination seems destined to put it there. In 1991, he was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey , in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that required a married woman to inform her husband before having an abortion.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
We need to get enough Republicans in Congress so we can't be held hostage by the so-called Republicans who side with the Democrats.
All we have to do is target one or two RINOs, get them defeated in the primaries, and put the fear of God in the rest.
Bush should hold the reins on the Republican money. Republicans who don't play along should get no money.
Could you ever imagine a Democrat opposing Clinton and getting away with it?
Politics is dirty business. Members of the president's party who screw him over should pay a very high price. That is Bush's weakness. He's too nice.
"All we have to do is target one or two RINOs, get them defeated in the primaries, and put the fear of God in the rest."
==
IMO that is totally wrong approach, that is the "let's cut off our noses to spite our face" approach, which will just get more Dems elected and we may even lose control of the Senate.
I think the right approach is to work hard to defeat more Dems and elect more Republicans, and as there are more real Republicans, we will have enough votes with or without the RINOs, so we will take away their power.
If we had 70 Republican Senators, the infamous 7 couldn't have made any deals with the Dems on the constitutional option of disallowing filibusters on judicial nominees. Well, 70 Republicans may be far fetched, but if we keep increasing our numbers, we can approach it. That would mean that there would have to be Republican unity to make sure that the R. candidate with the best chance of defeating the Dem would be nominated in the primaries.
No reason we can't do both.
Welcome to Free Republic.
(Alito can withstand few Republican defections if Democrats solidly oppose him.)
The heat is actually on the Dem senators from Red states.
(Alito can withstand few Republican defections if Democrats solidly oppose him.)
The heat is actually on the Dem senators from Red states. The WAPO is engaged in a bit of wishful thinking, and in its so subtle way encouraging RINO's to defect on Alito.
The title should read Ultra liberal extremist oppose Judge Alito confirmation with possible aid of disloyal Republicans.
But that would only happen if this was a NYT article and we were in bizzaro world...
Of course the Dems will oppose anyone Bush nominates unless its closet liberal.
And of course, the Liberal Rinos led by McClown will try to broker their own deal to enhance their prestige.
Its up to Bush to call McCLown into the woodshed and give him an old fashioned whupping and let him him know that Arizona might just as well be Togoland if McClown doesn't start behaving himself.
Republican Main Street Partnership
Congressional Members
109th Congress
Sen. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island
Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine
Sen. Johnny Isakson, Georgia
Sen. John McCain, Arizona
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
Sen. Gordon Smith, Oregon
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
Sen. Ted Stevens, Alaska
There are also 45 CONgresscritters and 5 Governors in this cabal.
The rinos on the republican side have never killed the judicial nominations if the dems don't fillabuster.
Even if Specter, Snowe, Collins, and Chafee voted against alito that would leave 51 votes still for him.
The rinos will backstab us if the dems fillabuster by not voting for the nuclear option.
But the ball is in the dems court if they don't fillabuster alito gets confirmed. Only if the dems fillabuster do the rinos have any say in the matter. And I doubt there are 50 votes for the nuclear option if it came to that.
The dems from red states are lapdogs for Harry Reid.
All the dems in this senate except for Harry Reid fillabustered Estrada. They call them Blue Dogs they are more like LapDogs.
I meant the only dems in the senate that didn't fillabuster Estrada were the Nelsons.
Landreiu, Lincoln, Pryor, Conrad are all at the calling of Schumer, Reid, Durbin and Kennedy.
Instead of whining about moderate Reps, work to elect 60+ senators.
I'll be honest...I can't tell the difference between any of them any more...they all spend like drunk sailors (with a few exceptions). When they aren't busy planning for Christmas and pushing off supreme court confirmations, they are grandstanding with nonbinding meaningless resolutions. It seems the only thing they have accomplished recently is to secure another pay raise. I am beginning to understand what they mean by a system of (pay)checks and (bank)balances.
If you help elect a democrat majority you sure as all @#$% will be able to tell the difference! The first thing they will do is impeach Bush.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.