Alito Filibuster update

Comments

1. cos says

   January 30, 2006 at 2:17 pm

   Here’s what I’ve been emailing to Senators on the above list, or posting to their web forms:

   A vote for Alito is a vote for letting President Bush get away with believing he is above the law.  And a vote against cloture is effectively a vote for Alito.

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   Please read these articles…

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   New York Times editorial:
   http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/opinion/26thur1.html?r=1

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   “A filibuster is a radical tool. It’s easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court.”

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   Checks, Balances, and the Duty to Filibuster (The Nation):
   http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=53470

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   “Samuel Alito has established himself […] as the consumate judicial activist. He seeks a place on the Supreme Court in order to advance his vision of an imperial presidency that does not obey the laws of the land or answer to the Congress. […] He has gone so far as to advise past presidents on strategies for expanding executive power and, as a judge, he has erred on the side of even the most reckless abuses of executive authority.”

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   Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University law professor and Constitutional scholar, explained: “In my years as an academic and a litigator, I have rarely seen the equal of Alito’s bias in favor of the government. To put it bluntly, when it comes to reviewing government abuse, Samuel Alito is an empty robe. […] The Alito vote might prove to be the single most important decision on the future of our constitutional system for decades to come. While I generally defer to presidents in their choices for the court, Samuel Alito is the wrong nominee at the wrong time for this country.”

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   Thom Hartmann, “It’s the Constitution at Stake”:
   http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0129-26.htm

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   “Samuel Alito not only would support such expansions of Presidential power on the Supreme Court, he was the author and/or principle proponent of several of the devices used today by Bush to secure such power (including the argument that the power of the Presidency is “unitary”).”

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   “As our legislators vote, we must carefully note their positions on this issue. Their oath of office is not to the President or even to “protect the people,” but to the Constitution. And it is the Constitution – and the future of our democratic republic – that is at stake here.”

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   Samuel Alito, Executive Assistant:
   http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060130&s=rosen013006

   • cos says

     January 30, 2006 at 2:27 pm

     Too bad there’s no way to edit a comment once posted.  Obviously it should be “a vote for cloture is”, not “against”.  Sorry ‘about that.

2. politicalfeminista says

   January 30, 2006 at 2:23 pm

   Good luck on getting Lautenberg to vote for a Fillibuster against Alito. It’ll be hard since Alito is from his State (NJ) and spoke for him at the Judiciary hearings.

   • cos says

     January 30, 2006 at 2:48 pm

     According to one of the people on democrats.com who’s been making calls, Frank Lautenberg is planning to announce he will vote No on Alito, and hasn’t made a statement about filibuster yet.  But if he’s going to vote No, and hasn’t made anti-filibuster statements, I think it’s not much of a stretch to think he’ll vote for the filibuster too.