Obama: Votes aren't there for Alito filibuster

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said efforts by Democratic leaders in the Senate to drum up support for a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito’s confirmation are likely to fail, and he appeared to be leaning against delay tactics.

“I have to tell you, the votes are probably not there for a filibuster,” the senator said during a stop in the Quad-Cities to open a new congressional office in Moline and to speak to the Quad-City Times editorial board. “It’s my understanding that at least seven Democrats have announced they will not be supporting it, meaning at most you’d get 38 votes. It’s largely a symbolic vote. The question is are you going to vote once or twice against Alito.”

As the floor debate in the Senate 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.

Obama wouldn’t announce which way he’d vote, but seemed lukewarm about the prospect.

However, he reiterated his opposition to the conservative judge’s nomination. Obama, a former president of the Harvard Law Review, said Alito’s record is too rigid.

“When he’s not forced to follow Supreme Court precedent, he consistently sides in favor of the more powerful party,” the senator said.

Obama also expressed concern that Alito was not a strong enough supporter of governmental checks and balances.

“At a time when the executive branch is stretching its powers to the absolute limit — whether its wiretapping provisions, its approach to what are considered enemy combatants and a host of issues related to the war on terror — it’s very important, I think, we have a Supreme Court that is very independent and is willing to say to the president, ‘Here are the boundaries of your power,’” Obama said. “And I don’t get the sense Judge Alito is willing to do that.”

I agree. He is a narcissist. But the decease I was actually thinking of was body dysphoric disorder which anorexia falls under also, I suppose..... The point I was trying to make was,they don't see themselves as they are, but as something exaggerated or different.........Anyway whats going to happen to old Lurch when Hillary or some other lib gets the nomination ? I'm. afraid he'll go nuts like captain Kwig in the ''Caine Mutiny''.LOL.........(off the topic )...You know who they say is really ''MEAN'' to their staff, interns etc? I think they said this on c-span the other morning. Sheila Jackson Lee! Uuuuhhh. I can't stand her but hear she treats people like they're dirt and is very demanding and abusive and makes people cry..........What is it with these libs? Doesn't being liberal mean compassion and kindness.?! ha What happened?

Freepers should always refer to Obama by his given Muslim name:

Barack HUSSEIN Obama

Barack Obama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Barack Obama
Office: Junior Senator, Illinois
Political party: Democratic
Term of office: January 2005–Present
Preceded by: Peter Fitzgerald
Succeeded by: Incumbent (2011)
Born: August 4, 1961
Honolulu, Hawaii
Died:
Spouse: Michelle Obama

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (born August 4, 1961) is a U.S. Senator from Illinois. He is the first African-American man from the Democratic Party ever to be elected to the United States Senate. He received international media coverage for his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, delivered while he was still an Illinois state senator.

Obama won the open Senate seat while on leave from the University of Chicago Law School. He is the only African-American currently serving in the U.S. Senate, the fifth in U.S. history and the third since Reconstruction. Obama won the election in a landslide, with 70% of the vote to Alan Keyes' 27%. He is junior senator to Richard Durbin, with whom he is reported to have an excellent professional and personal relationship.

Obama is married to Michelle Obama, a Chicago native. They have two daughters: Malia Ann (born 1999) and Natasha (born 2001).

Early life

Barack Obama was born at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii to Harvard-educated economist Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a native of Kenya, and S. Ann Dunham, of Wichita, Kansas. At the time of Obama's birth, both his parents were students at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Barack initially was given the religion of his father which was Islam but eventually decided to embrace the Christian faith.

Of his years in Hawaii, Obama has written, "The irony is that my decision to work in politics, and to pursue such a career in a big Mainland city, in some sense grows out of my Hawaiian upbringing, and the ideal that Hawaii still represents in my mind."

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father eventually returned to Kenya, and he saw his son only once more before his death in 1982. Ann Obama married another East-West Center student from Indonesia. In his early childhood while growing up with his mother, Barack used the name 'Barry'. The family then moved to Jakarta,
where Obama's half-sister Maya was born (Obama has other half-siblings from his father's other marriages). When Obama was ten he returned to Hawaii under the care of his grandparents, and later his mother, for the better educational opportunities. He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, where he graduated with honors in 1979.

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