Posted on 01/27/2006 1:00:31 PM PST by areafiftyone
From DiFi's office:
Senator Feinstein to Vote No on Cloture for the Nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that she will vote no on cloture regarding the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
“Based on a very long and thoughtful analysis of the record and transcript, which I tried to indicate in my floor statement yesterday, I’ve decided that I will vote no on cloture.”
Yes he is.
Yes she does. Hillary is already a Yes on a filibuster too.
Well I emailed the good Senator and thanked her for continuing to be a beacon of obstruction trying to thwart the will of the people.
I am sure it will go over well. At least I hope so... :]
She has one vote....use it and move along.
Frist may not have the votes to go nuclear. I know that I saw a post that said that Frist says that he does have the votes, but I'm not sure when it comes right down to it, if the votes will be there.
so why is this in Breaking News? Feinstein and her liberal ilk will vote no. What is significant about this particular liberal voting no on cloture. pls educate me.
He had better Howlin! I still think that GWB originally nominated Miers because the Senate 'Pubs are too weak to pull the nuclear option off.
This last week, I thought he was wrong. Maybe I was a little hasty. This isn't over yet.
Absolutely.
Read it right here: Senators in Need of a Spine (NY Times Editorial Board Urges Filibuster Alert)
It's quite amazing to read.
I think that the Dems are gambling that the Republicans are feeling so vulnerable that they won't pull the nuclear option before the mid term elections. Frankly, I think that they should and then ram as many judicial appointments through as they can get in the next nine months.
I wonder how the IQ of Feinstein matches that of Alito. I bet CA people think DiFi is smarter!
Senator Nelson (FL) will NOT support a filibuster; I just called his office. I got a rather confusing answer: they said he would abstain from the filibuster vote. So I pressed to ask if he will vote yes or no on cloture on Monday afternoon. I finally got the aide to say he would vote yes on cloture, but she was very confused.
You are right; he better; because if he doesn't, I'm not that far from South Carolina and I can get right down there to campaign against him.
Even if I do know people who work for him. I've about had enough.
BTW
CNN: Wolf Blizer Reports - They have more then 60 votes for cloture - possibly 70
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1565741/posts
I don't trust Graham.
---- Oh Come On. If Graham aspires to the Vice Presidency, he knows what he has to do.
It doesn't matter what Feinstein, Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton, etc. do. The Dems don't have the numbers to filibuster. I don't understand the frenzied reaction on this thread either. There will be no filibuster and Alito will be confirmed.
It is only feasible to go nuclear if cloture fails.
As it stands now, even with Feinstein, cloture will succeed and the filibuster will be defeated.
Going nuclear to go nuclear would ensure the option is defeated as well, I can guarantee that.
Hit his knees for McLame?
it doesn't matter because the GOP has the vote to change the rules.
He is. That list is the gang-of-14, along with the text of the relevant clause in their agreement. With the recent news re: Pryor, the unofficial count for and against the nominee lokks like this:
Aye = 56 Nay = 34
2 GOP yet to commit: 8 DEM yet to commit:
Chaffee _ __/| Bayh Landrieu
Snowe \`O.o' Cantwell Lautenberg
=(_ _)= Conrad Menendez
U Dorgan Rockefeller
Phhlllt Ack!
DEM Crossover = 3 GOP Crossover = 0
Nelson (NE)
Johnson (SD)
Byrd (WV)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito enjoys sufficient bipartisan support to surmount any Senate filibuster attempt by minority Democrats, Senate leaders said 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 alike said the 55-year-old conservative jurist will get more than the 60 votes need to cut off debate on the Senate floor Monday.
"Everyone knows there are not enough votes to support a filibuster," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Friday. Senate Majority Leader Bill First, R-Tenn., said the same thing on Thursday. "A bipartisan majority will vote to confirm Judge Alito as Justice Alito," First said.
Alito's supporters already have those commitments, with 53 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.
Senior Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska also threw his support to Alito. Stevens said he closely monitored Alito's commitment during his confirmation hearings to "respect" past rulings when it comes to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's landmark abortion rights decision.
"As I vote to confirm his nomination, I do so under the assumption that Judge Alito will uphold this commitment," said Stevens, who supports abortion rights.
Reid, who will vote on Monday with Democrats who want to filibuster Alito and against confirmation on Tuesday, said those votes are "an opportunity to people to express their opinion on what a bad choice it was to replace Sandra Day O'Connor."
Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd plans to support the filibuster effort, spokeswoman Stacie Paxton said Friday.
"He will vote against cloture," said Paxton, using a Senate term for ending a filibuster.
Dodd and the state's other Democratic senator, Sen. Joe Lieberman, have both said they will vote against Alito.
Dodd complained that Alito's judicial philosophy is "outside the mainstream." As the floor debate ensued Friday, 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."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)
I'm working as hard as I can right this minute to clear the decks so I can watch 24/7 next week! We need a good laugh.
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