To Filibuster, Or Not to Filibuster?

With the recent nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, the Democrats in the Senate are facing a decisively uphill battle. Clearly, parts of the Democratic Party do not like Alito, he has already been called a wingnut, an idealogue, and perhaps most telling 'Scalito' or 'Scalia-lite'. The A.C.L.U, N.O.W, and the other big name liberal organizations are, after recovering from their convulsion fits, probably preparing to launch a full scale war against the confirmation of Judge Alito.

Unfourtunately, the likelyhood of this doing any good is virtually non-existant. The harder they fight the bigger and more impressive the victory is for the Republicans. And the Republicans will win this one, make no mistake. They have that 55-45 advantage in the Senate, and it looks like the gang of 14 is not going to butt in and screw around. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the semi-Republican from my home state, has already said the "filibuster will not stand", and it appears the other 6 RINO's are falling in step with him. In other words, all the Republicans will likely be voting to confirm Alito, and could very well invoke the 'nuclear option' if the Democrats try to use the filibuster. Furthurmore, it appears as though the 'gang of 14' Democrats, such as Sen Mark Pryor, do not seem to consider this an 'extraordinary circumstance' and thus have shown little intrest in a filibuster.

So the bottom line is this: Democrats just need to let this nomination happen, because bickering and fighting only hurts them. Bush now has his base strongly behind him, and the plan is apparently to win a nice victory and then launch into a new part of the agenda. For instance, the high tide from an Alito confirmation would be a great launching pad for, say, Social Security reform. So the Democrats may want to save their ammo for later fights.

But now that I think about it, Karl Rove probably has an extra plan ready, just in case the Democrats don't take his bait......