OK, its been a couple of hours, I'm over it...

I need a vacation, but other than that, consider me in for future battles.
I will be a little more skeptical - but that is probably a good thing.

I WILL NOT GIVE UP

This loss is nothing to me - it only means we need to regroup and prepare for the fight ahead.

NGU NGU

I will never give up

:patriot:

It never made sense, trying to filibuster this matter. The Democrats never had the votes - it was a big nothing, as far as I'm concerned, and the Senators who called for the filibuster, in my opinion, were simply pandering the the people, like the good folks of DU. There was never going to be a filibuster, and the honest Senators stayed out of the fray.

Yet again, my once-beloved Democrats step on their own dicks and look confused. Throw the lot out, I say.

Republicans outnumber Democrats in the Senate, and the Democrats had nothing with which to bargain to get people to switch votes from the regular party line.

That's because the Democrats lost elections.

The ones who fought for us should be thrown out because the ones who never fight didn't fight and consequently should also be thrown out. You have really lost me on that line of thinking.

:crazy:

Believe me, I wish Alito had never even been nominated. I wish O'Connor had been able to stay on the bench, even though she was a risky bit of business so much of the time.

No one fought. Don't buy the hype, which is all these Senators put out. Making speeches to empty chambers and doing things that should have been done before and during the hearings are nothing but pandering and playacting. This was a done deal, and the notion of a filibuster was always laughable, since - this is elementary - the votes weren't there.

Hold them to standards that you know are part of their job. Don't let them throw you symbolic crumbs and then believe you're being nourished. You're being put on, and that's not good. No one fought for us, for you, of for anything. They just did their bit as actors on a stage. Alito should have been investigated and hammered and the Democrats let it go.

I mean, Kerry was in Davos when this came to a head? That's so repugnant, I lack the words.

The divisiveness on this just made the party appear to be in even more disarray than before. Fingerpointing, the appearance of lack of leadership, etc.

And now they have a lot of people like us howling for their scalps with a whole new list of enemies.

Someone needs to coach these guys on picking the right fights.

With the outcome basically set in stone, the focus should have been on delaying the vote beyond SOTU, if possible.

How about considering that mounting this effort from the start was not about Alito- too late to close the barn door on that horse- but about the next Supreme Court confirmation.

Republicans got a stalemate retention of the Presidency and a four seat gain in the Senate out of the '04 elections.

As I see it, Republican retention of the Presidency was mandate sans mandate, about carrying on the initiatives of the past 4 years to their end, but no others- letting the Iraq experiment reach its conclusion, fighting Al Qaeda in the crude and stupid way it has been, nominating conservatives to the Supreme Court, and letting the '03 tax cuts stand but expire.

The four seat Republican gain in the Senate was clearly about social conservatism. There's nothing on the plate in terms of meaningful legislation, so it was about pushing the Court further to the Right. The question, as I see it, is how many votes changed on the Supreme Court does a four seat margin change in the Senate deserve. Looking over the Eighties and Nineties, I think the answer is: one. If Republicans win two or three more seats in the Senate in '06, I'd say they have mandate for another one.

So, the interpretation I put on the present result is that Bush and Republicans are getting the Justice on the Court the election gave them title to. Kerry and Kennedy weren't so much disputing this one as trying to ensure that Republicans are kept honest, that they don't get another one out of it out of Democratic negligence and incompetence.

It has been a long couple of days. I even called the Republicans. I am not to desperate or angry huh

It makes me angry at what they have gotten away with, this administration has made
all treaties and progress made by past presidents mean nothing. We don't even
have a valid nuclear proliferation treaty any longer because that would be too restrictive.
Why shouldn't we call them on it. What if this was a hospital and one day 60% of the
people showed up wearing red scrubs and starting trashing the place, would we say: Oh that's okay, they run the place now. Not very likely.

IMHO I think that a number of republicans don't want to see him confirmed and they are hoping the dems will fight/fillibuster so they can avoid voting against him themselves. Calling them might make a difference if they feel they might end up getting broader support when election time rolls around.

But what I really don't understand is it sems as thought Alito will gradually strip the powers of congress. Why would any congress person want him on the court? I don't think any of them are thinking this over, just doing what they are told.

you do a good job, I always open your post when I see your name. Keep it coming, we
have to see this play out.

enthusiastically...........

FiredogLake has an inspiring post up that did wonders for my melancholia.
http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/ ...and I'm going to email all who voted NO and give them a big thank you...especially the two big K's.

I'll hold down the fort