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Republicans Clear the Way for Alito Vote
TriState Media ^ | 01/27/2006 | Jsees J. Holland (AP)

Posted on 01/27/2006 12:51:36 PM PST by NapkinUser

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito enjoys sufficient bipartisan support to surmount any Senate filibuster attempt by minority Democrats, members of both parties indicated Friday.

A final vote making the New Jersey jurist the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice is scheduled for Tuesday, hours before President Bush gives his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation.

Democrats and Republicans both said that the 55-year-old conservative jurist will get more than the 60 votes need to cut off debate on the Senate floor Monday. "Next Tuesday, a bipartisan majority will vote to confirm Judge Alito as Justice Alito," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Alito's supporters already have those commitments, with 52 of the Republicans' 55-member majority and three Democrats _ Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska _ already publicly supporting his confirmation as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., also announced Friday he is "leaning in favor of voting for" the conservative judge. "It is clear to me that a majority of the American people and the people I represent support his confirmation," he said after meeting with Alito in his office.

In addition, Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Ken Salazar of Colorado and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota _ as well as GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine _ made it clear after a second day of floor debate on Alito that they would not support a filibuster, even though Akaka and Salazar oppose Alito and the others are undecided.

"We're going to have a vote Tuesday morning," Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said. "Everyone knows there are not enough votes to support a filibuster, but it's an opportunity to people to express their opinion on what a bad choice it was to replace Sandra Day O'Connor."

As the floor debate ensued Thursday, the leaders of the filibuster attempt _ Massachusetts Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry _ were trying to drum up support in their caucus for blocking Alito.

They were counting senators like Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Debbie Stabenow on their side. Other senators, including ranking Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Charles Schumer of New York, head of the Senate Democrats' fundraising arm, did not say Thursday whether they supported the effort.

"There's some division in our caucus," Kennedy conceded. "It's an uphill climb at the current time, but it's achievable."

Many Democrats contended that Alito's confirmation would put individual rights and liberties in danger. The former federal prosecutor and lawyer for the Reagan administration would replace O'Connor, the court's first female justice and the swing vote on several 5-4 rulings that maintained abortion rights, preserved affirmative action and limited the application of the death penalty.

"The president has every right to nominate Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court," Kerry said. "It's our right and our responsibility to oppose him vigorously and to fight against this radical upending of the Supreme Court."

Asked if the administration was taking Kerry's call for a filibuster seriously, White House press secretary Scott McClellan chuckled on Friday and said: "I think it was a historic day yesterday. It was the first ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland."

Republicans immediately began criticizing Democrats for even considering a filibuster.

"Continuing to threaten a filibuster, even after it is crystal clear that Democrats don't have the necessary votes to sustain their obstruction, is needless, strange and at odds with many of their fellow Democrats," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Bush urged the Senate to go ahead and put the 55-year-old judge from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the Supreme Court.

Alito "understands the role of a judge is not to advance a personal and political agenda," the president said Thursday at the White House. "He is a decent man. He's got a lot of experience and he deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate."

Nelson, Byrd and Johnson are the only Democrats to express support for Alito so far. Twenty-two of the Senate's 44 Democrats voted against John Roberts' confirmation as chief justice last year.

If the pattern continues, Alito may be on his way to the most partisan Senate victory for a Supreme Court nominee in years. The closest vote in modern history is Clarence Thomas' 52-48 victory in 1991, when 11 Democrats broke with their party and voted for President George H.W. Bush's nominee.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 109th; alito; alitovote; gop; scotus

1 posted on 01/27/2006 12:51:39 PM PST by NapkinUser
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To: NapkinUser
On another thread there was a statement that Gallop had public support for Alito's confirmation at 66%. The red-state Democratic senators up for reelection this fall are just gonna love spending the fall explaining why they are in the party of Windbag Ted and Jenjis John.

2 posted on 01/27/2006 1:04:14 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

The Republicans have in no way cleared the way for a vote for Alito. The Democrats are just stalling the filibuster until they can get enough calls and emails to use as an excuse for the filibuster. They will then say that they were forced to do it because Alito is so far out of the mainstream that their constituents demanded the filibuster.


3 posted on 01/27/2006 1:06:22 PM PST by Eva
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To: NapkinUser
Asked if the administration was taking Kerry's call for a filibuster seriously, White House press secretary Scott McClellan chuckled on Friday and said: "I think it was a historic day yesterday. It was the first ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland."

Heh, heh, heh!

4 posted on 01/27/2006 1:08:37 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ("When the government is invasive, the people are wanting." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: PJ-Comix

"Asked if the administration was taking Kerry's call for a filibuster seriously, White House press secretary Scott McClellan chuckled on Friday and said: "I think it was a historic day yesterday. It was the first ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland.""

Sound familiar?


5 posted on 01/27/2006 1:12:57 PM PST by NapkinUser ("Our troops have become the enemy." -Representative John P. Murtha, modern day Benedict Arnold.)
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To: Eva
The Republicans have in no way cleared the way for a vote for Alito.

That's what I'm thinking. That and the fact that the SOTU speech will be the same day. The Democrats would love to rub Bush's nose in such a fiasco. What was wrong with holding the vote today ?

6 posted on 01/27/2006 1:21:51 PM PST by oldbrowser (No matter how cynical I get, I can't seem to keep up)
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To: Eva
The Republicans have in no way cleared the way for a vote for Alito. The Democrats are just stalling the filibuster
Although I have seen references here to the effect that Kerry and Kennedy have called for a filibuster, though I haven't seen quotes around the word filibuster attributed to either of those senators. It is conventional when assaying to filibuster to deny that that is what you are doing; if Kerry actually used the word it would be a direct challenge to Frist to go for the "nuclear option."

Even if they did not use the word explicitly, the Democrats - Harry Reid is officially the Minority Leader - have announced that there has been plenty of time allocated for debate before Tuesday. There is therefore no fig leaf for "extended debate" - if it becomes necessary to call a cloture vote it would officially be a filibuster.

It would constitute a direct challenge to the Republicans to officially reject the principle that cloture requires more than a simple majority. And I don't see the McCainiacs accepting a plea of "extraordinary circumstances" in this case; how many of the Gang of Fourteen have already committed for Alito?? Certainly Lindsey Graham has . . .


7 posted on 01/27/2006 2:11:46 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: oldbrowser
That and the fact that the SOTU speech will be the same day. The Democrats would love to rub Bush's nose in such a fiasco.
Alito has more than 50 commitmented to voting for his confirmation. I confess that I do not comprehend the theory that Bush would be embarassed if Alito were not confirmed before the SOTU speech.

Not, certainly, unless there were Republican senators opposing cloture. Besides, when Bush gives his speech he has no need to bring the subject up at all.


8 posted on 01/27/2006 2:20:46 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
I confess that I do not comprehend the theory that Bush would be embarrassed if Alito were not confirmed before the SOTU speech.

The SOTU speech is Bush's opportunity to focus the attention of the nation on his message.

By providing the MSM with a competing headline line story (particularly a negative one) Bush's message would be partially obscured.

The embarrassment would be that Bush is unable to choreograph an important moment such as the confirmation of a supreme court justice or the SOTU address.

9 posted on 01/27/2006 2:48:56 PM PST by oldbrowser (No matter how cynical I get, I can't seem to keep up)
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To: NapkinUser
I don't suppose that if O'Connor has had second thoughts about retiring that we would know it. But if in fact she has not, and wants off the court, she could up the ante in this situation by revoking the condition "effective on confirmation of my replacement" and simply resigning outright. She could of course do that at any time. But if she did it now, with a nominee whose confirmation is favored by more than 50 Senators awaits a vote . . .

In any event, FNC says Republicans are confident that a filibuster effort could not defeat cloture.


10 posted on 01/27/2006 3:03:07 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: oldbrowser
The embarrassment would be that Bush is unable to choreograph an important moment such as the confirmation of a supreme court justice or the SOTU address.
The plain fact is that journalism is liberal, and journalism can trumpet or bury stories at will. If any Republican president doesn't adapt to that situation, he will have a rocky path.

11 posted on 01/27/2006 3:09:13 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Some of the Democrat members of the gang of fourteen have either come out and stated that they would support a filibuster and others are taking an unofficial poll (counting emails and phone calls) over the weekend to decide whether or not filibuster.


12 posted on 01/27/2006 4:53:31 PM PST by Eva
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