Posted on 10/31/2005 9:33:55 AM PST by Checkers
"As I wrote below, the best way to preempt a filibuster is for the nine Republicans thought lukewarm or hostile to the constitutional option to announce, early and often, that they will vote for the constitutional option if Democrats attempt a filibuster based upon ideology. If the Senate Democrats know they are going to lose the vote, they will have to approach this debate much, much differently. And if the MSM loses their filibuster storyline early, it will be difficult to campaign on air to legitimize the practice.
Senator Graham led the way for the nine yesterday, and the other 8 ought to follow:
Senator McCain mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Contact.Home (202) 224-2235
Senator Warner warner.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm (202) 224-2023
Senator DeWine dewine.senate.gov (202) 224-2315
Senator Chafee chafee.senate.gov/webform.htm (202) 224-2921
Senator Snowe http://snowe.senate.gov/Webform.htm (202) 224-5344
Senator Collins collins.senate.gov/low/contactemail.htm (202) 224-2523
Senator Hagel hagel.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact (202) 224-4224
Senator Specter (202) 224-4254 specter.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactInfo.Home "
Knowing that the democrats on the judiciary committee would pull out the long knives on any nomination, Bush was forced to pick another Justice in the mold of Roberts - a Justice that can talk circles around the democrats on the committee and teach them a lesson in constitutional law.
So, has any one of the a-holes, er, senators made a statement in behalf of Alito yet?
So who's this Alito guy? Is George Bush still president? What's been happening?
Just jokin' y'all. Nice to be back on FR after a week...
mark
Silly Talk
[Mark R. Levin 10/31 09:54 AM]
On ABC's "Good Morning America," Linda Douglass reported that Sam Alito "is another white male." Actually, as I think about it, he's less white than the show's anchor, Charles Gibson. Alito's skin tone appears to me to be more olive. I wonder, if Janice Rogers Brown had been nominated, would reporters like Linda Douglass have been more impressed? Of course not. Speaking of Gibson, he said that Alito was "very conservative." I don't know what this means. But more importantly, given that Gibson probably hasn't read a single opinion authored by Alito, he's speaking from talking points.
I applaud Hewitt for being an adult, and wholeheartedly backing this nominee, without a hint of harking back to the recent unpleasantness.
I agree with his opinion here for the most part, but I sincerely think it would be better in the long run if we had the filibuster battle and won it, so it wouldn't rear its ugly head again.
This is a very good reference list for the "squishy R's" as far as the judiciary is concerned.
I'd save my time and forget about Chaffee - he's a lost cause - but the rest are worth going after - though I'm not at all concerned about DeWine and Graham and think they'll be solid.
Hagel and Specter are more important to woo than most realize, though.
I applaud Hugh Hewitt also. Glad to be on the same side this time.
I wouldn't be too concerned about Specter. I think it would be unprecedented for a Senator from the same party as the President to oppose a Supreme Court nominee from a district court bench whose jurisdiction includes the state that the Senator represents.
Chaffee might not be so lost as you may think, now that he's facing a demonstrably more conservative challenger in the next election.
There, that puts things in perspective.
I'd love to think that Alito's being from Specter's area is quite a bit of leverage. It usually is. I just hope and pray that as a consequence, Alito was one of the suggestions that Specter made during discussions with WH... I've heard nothing to suggest that to be true so far, though. That does not bode well, it seems - but still he is from that district... Here's hoping - because I really believe that Specter is THE most imortant now - not just for Alito, but for ANY USSC nominee to have an honest chance after the way Miers (who he supported) was treated.
I'd love to think that is true, but Chaffee's record is one of unabashed liberalism. Most of the "scorecards" have him much more closely aligned as a Demodog than is the case for any other RINO in the Senate. I haven't noticed that his voting has become suddenly more conservative this year in any of the voting that has taken place.
Sorry. Chaffee must be considered one who must be forgotten - just about as important as Jumpin'Jim.
Me too. I honestly don't think we need to have a filibuster battle if we can simply ram this through. If the RINOs behave themselves, if enough Democrats come on board, if they refrain from filibustering, that will also be a major victory.
Sure, we should use the Constitutional option if we have to. But if the Democrats back down, that will be even better in many ways, because it will reverse the momentum of the past few years.
Indeed, it will be the first really solid conservative candidate confirmed to the court in a long, long time. We had Specter's help with Clarence Thomas (which he soon regreted, but not soon enough to block the confirmation). But a victory, with or without calling cloture, would reverse the whole set of unfortunate compromises and backings-down that began with Bork.
Specter will inevitably make liberal statements, but I'm hopeful he will stand behind Bush on this in his own snide way.
But again that would be smart.. never happen..
But the DEMs have to enagage in obstruction before the nuke can play.
I suspect "no filibuster" in the Alito nomination. The DEMs can either "lose" the seat; or they can lose both, the seat, and the filibuster tool.
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