I think you're right, but again, I'll wait and see the votes. Personally, I think after a week or two the Dems are going to slink away on these judge issues and shut the hell up so that we all forget it, cause they are getting killed on this.
I wish I could agree with you but we have to remember that for the Democrats, what is at stake with the judges is abortion--nothing more and nothing less. They cannot afford to slink away--their base would be even madder and would hurt them more than the anger in the Republican base hurts the Republicans. The Dems have fought a reargard action, were on the verge of annihilation and the pursuing army pulled back. The Democrats will live to fight another day and while they may not destroy as many judicial nominees as they hoped to, they hope that they can block just enough and intimidate Bush into nominating Souter-types so that, in the end, they squeak away with Roe-v-Wade intact. That is the truly horrific scenario I think looms on the horizon.
And the only solution is to defeat all RINOs in the future and get a solid pro-life majority in the Senate. It probably is not wise to abandon the Republicans, as angry as we are. Rather, we have to focus at the grassroots level on getting solid prolifers to run against the RINOs and defeat them. Those who have money to give to Republicans will need to be selective in who they give it to--stop giving to the RNC but target trustworthy younger candidates. We thought we were close to the tipping point. It's farther off than we thought. 55 votes is not 55 votes when six or seven of them are RINOs.
The realignment is not complete yet. More conservative Democrats have come over to the Republicans than traffic going the other way (Jeffords being the exception). The RINOs have to be made to see that they belong on the other side of the equation and they have to be replaced with solid pro-lifers. Targeting money and effort to primary challengers to the RINOs is probably the best way to send that message.
The problem is not with the Republican party as a whole but with the RINOs. We trusted too much that they would support the party. Never again.