Let's first take a stab at trying to figure out the Democrats' strategy. Every that both the GOP and the Dems will do in that regard involves working backwards from one point in time...next Tuesday evening, when President Bush will deliver the State of the Union speech. The GOP wants, and will get, Alito confirmed BEFORE the speech, even if the vote occurs Tuesday afternoon.
There will not be a filabuster. Some Dems continue to dangle the idea, to keep the looney left base excited, but it's not in the cards. I expect Alito will receive 5-7 Dem votes....indeed the Red state Dem senators now are making their case to be allowed to vote for Alito. Dems are stupid, but some do remember the lessons of 2002..
So, then..what's their plan? Having watched the Dem leadership comments after the committee meeting yesterday, and Reid's thoroughly detestable SOTU prequel, full of all sorts of gratuitous "advice" to the President; my sense is that the Senate Democrats intend to use the three days or more, of floor debate to beat up on the President on every issue..the NSA, the all-powerful executive...the whole liberal laundry list...They feel that the country will be watching,a nd they will get a lot of free media time. It's their chance to speak to the country.
Watch the leaders' time this morning, when the Senate convenes. Frist, then Reid, speak. The majority leader will announce his floor schedule..He should say that there will be three days of debate, with a vote scheduled for Friday afternoon, and that to accomodate Senators who want to speak at length, he will hold the Senate late every night. Now look for Reid to try to gum things up...to get even more debate time..to hold the vote over until next week. There may be some parliamentary rules quirk that will allow for additional debate time. I'm not sure..
However, this is where Frist should, indeed, must, draw the line. If more time must be allowed, then he will hold the Senate in session on both Saturday, and Sunday if needed..No way can he allow this to vote to go over to next week, because it will be a huge distraction from the State of the Union..
So unless he is smart and gets a WRITTEN agreement from Reid as to the vote schedule, you may well see a cloture vote filed within the next day or so.
I expect the early manuevering this morning to get very bitter, even ugly.
Hopefully you all saw some, or most of yesterday's hearing. All of the GOP senators were excellent, but we have to hand out two gold stars for exceptional work..
1. Lindsay Graham: "I'll just tell you right now we welcome that debate on our side. We'll clean your clock...." (I have a feeling that we may have just seen the birth of the GOP campaign slogan for 2006)
2. Tom Coburn: The "anti-Biden". Living proof that you can say something meaningful, and powerful, in a brief period of time. Directly refuting those Dem senators, especially Feinstein, who said ad nausem that they were voting against Alito because he was "against the little guy" and against Roe, Coburn said their concerns ring hollow..."I think about the most vulnerable 'little guy' in this world, which is the unborn child, which we attain no liberty for in this country any longer. And how can we claim to be for the little guy and ignore that little guy?" A great big "well done" to the good doctor..
Having watched the Dems' performance on all issues the last few weeks, I'm very optimistic about the fall campaign. I thing that the senator from South Carolina is indeed correct. The GOP will GAIN seats in both the House and Senate. And the reason why is simple..The Dems are virtually clueless. They are waging a campaingn that plays very well in three places: Inside the Beltway, in the MSM, and in their hard core base. But those three do not make a political majority..they fall far short of it. But Reid, and Schumer, et al, see all the cameras, all the reporters, get on all the Sunday shows, and they think..."wow...look at all the interest I'm generating. I must be relevant to the American people.." Yup..keep holding onto that thought for another 7 months, until the roof falls in..
BTW, has anyone else besides me noticed that the Dems greatest absolute power couple, my next-door-neighbors, the Clintons, are totally MIA on the Alito debate? Nary a peep, a comment. Hillary's out there issue pressers on medical care..and avoiding the media like the plague. Maybe she's reading "Gone With The Wind? Ya think?
And here's a last little tidbit...
Last night, while channel surfing during the endless commericals on "American Idol" I caught a snippet of "Commander in Chief". I've never seen the show, but have read about it on FR threads. It's a blatant attempt to promote the idea of a Hillary presidency....( and BTW, the ratings are tanking, badly)..but in the few second I saw, the President's husband, who is also a politician ( the First Fellow he's called) responding to criticism that he is really calling the shots in the Oval Office, says..( and this is a direct quote..I almost fell off the chair when I heard it..) "The American people are lucky to have me there. They get two for the price of one."
Now, sports fans...does that perhaps sound familar?
FREEPER HEALTH ADVISORY: Any attempt to watch more than three consecutive hours of Democrat senators talking is hazardous to your health. So change the station, take a walk, do some work, ( hah!) cook dinner..others will keep you advised...Note: the previous warning does NOT apply to when Sheets is on the floor..
And remember, as your resist the desire to put your foot through your new HDTV plasma flat screen, into the face of a Dem senator, with all its flaws, our democracy is still the best form of governance yet devised by man..
"However, this is where Frist should, indeed, must, draw the line"
ARE YOU DREAMING!! Will never happen, the spineless Frist will cave to all the RATholes demands!
I thoroughly enjoyed your well-written "intro."
The Dems are a fragmented and imploding party. For years...decades...they have been a party of disparate cliques each with it's own unique agenda and many directly clashing with the aims of other Dem groups. For example, the blacks usually take issue with the homosexual agenda. Only the wild eyed radicals from every group have the personality charisma to hold it all together in a sort of shaky truce. None of these extreme groups wants to give up a seat at the table and gosh darn ~singing off key~ they're not gonna take it anymore ~
The sad reality is that they think they're speaking for mainstream America and they really haven't a clue. Some of the hard core base has already deserted them at crucial times because of the (correct) perceptions that the Dem agenda and platforms do not in effect support many of the dearly held beliefs of those groups. Case in point: UNIONS have always enjoyed a huge piece of the Democratic party, and they pour big bucks into the machine. The union leadership is solid, but they can no longer guarantee to deliver the union votes.
In 2000 the rank and file in West-by-God Virginia ignored the union calls to vote the party line. They voted their guns instead. The Dems ignored the gun issue in a state where the first day of deer season is a school holiday! Same thing for the rest of the south.
They actually said that in the new show Commander in Chief? OMG. Shameless Hillary shilling.
Opening without room for a fallback position, by which to accommodate a "compromise," is very poor strategy. Frist should open with two days of debate, allowing for the Rats to "negotiate" a possible third. It's a good time to wring out future concessions.
And that word summons up a great cartoon: Kennedy et al in gladiator digs with swords drawn around a picture of an unborn baby and a crowd of lib pro-abortion groups (NARAL, NOW, etc.) cheering wildly. And a caption: The "little guy" vs the "Lions of the Left."
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RE:
"The American people are lucky to have me there. They get two for the price of one."
+++++
Thanks for the thread, ken.
Do you find it surprising that just momentary pauses on a TV channel or radio station often reveal the core of the presentation. Is it ESP, serendipity or compulsive media-monitoring? I have often wondered about that as it seems to happen too frequently to be a random occurence. Am I putting myself in the compulsive category?
Leahy
The left are upset that the Miers nomination was withdrawn.
[Telling, very telling. Why did they want her on the SC so badly?]
EXCELLENT analysis! Let's hope we see lots of 'clock cleaning' today...tear its innards apart, in fact. (and then put it back together without that loose screw named Teddy)
As for your next door neighbors, Hillary has trapped herself in another little box with her attempts to be all things to all people so she can't come out with any kind of definitive statement on Alito.
"Some political observers might not remember the national unity that Feinstein recalls under Bill Clinton, who, when he nominated Ginsburg and Breyer, had been elected with 43 percent of the vote. But Feinstein appeared to be speaking from the heart. 'There comes a time when you just have to stand up,' she said in closing, 'particularly when you know the majority of people think as you do.'"
Feinstein's remark is indicative of the Radical Left Democrats, who are so entrenched in the ideology of the powerful groups who fund and manipulate them, and they are so out of touch with America's heartland, that they can claim, as Feinstein did, that the majority of America's citizens think like they do.
Here again, they operate on the premise that the moneyed and powerful ACLU, Hollywood, Planned Parenthood, People for the American Way, NOW, etc., etc., Radical Leftist groups are the mainstream of America.
This is a telling remark by Feinstein, especially in light of a report headed, "Political Storm in US . . . ," which appears on the web page of the Communist Party USA. This Report was presented to its International meeting in Athens in November 2005. Here is an excerpt:
"Some 300,000 Americans demonstrated in September demanding the troops be brought home from Iraq. Many of these people had never attended a demonstration before. Recently more than 1,000 peace vigils were held around the nation to mark the 2,000th U.S. death in Iraq. Polls show a majority want the money now spent on the war to be transferred to rebuilding the region devastated by the recent hurricanes.
"This public mood has pushed some Democratic Party members of Congress to introduce legislation demanding an "exit strategy" from Iraq with timetables, or cutting off funds for deployment of troops to Iraq. Such calls, joined by some Republicans, are likely to grow as pressure from the people mounts.
"Bush's Social Security privatization plan has been defeated, at least for now, by the mass grassroots mobilization of labor, retirees and other people's organizations.
"The Communist Party USA is deeply involved, and welcomed as activists and leaders, in all of these movements. We believe that this growing broad unity and grassroots activity must and will be expanded to thoroughly defeat not only the current administration's programs but the whole far-right effort to entrench itself in power.
"We see the all-people's movement to defeat the ultra-right as a vital step toward building a broad anti-monopoly coalition that will challenge the rule of transnational monopoly capital. Through the struggle for an anti-monopoly platform and government in the United States, we believe, the American people will see that socialism is not only a better way of organizing society, but a necessity. At every stage of the struggle, the core components of the movement are the working class, the nationally and racially oppressed and women.
"Events in our country and around the world show that the struggle for socialism is intertwined with the fight for democracy, for multi-ethnic, multi-racial unity and gender equality, for education and democratic, secular culture."
Have fun. Have a great day!
Are they actually voting now? I see a 35-19 count on CSPAN.
I found this link at the Washington Post's website.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/24/AR2006012400563_pf.html
If the link doesn't work (it is to the Print Edition), go to www.washingtonpost.com, and look down towards the bottom of the page for "Continuing Coverage of Alito" and Click on "Committee Vote". Apologies if this has already been posted.