Redstate

The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Alito's nomination out of committee on Wednesday in a party-line vote.

Since Leahy's pledge was that no Dem on the Committee would ask for a one-week delay on the 24th, can they ask for one on the 25th when the vote is planned? I can see that weasel saying he met his pledge in such a situation if the rules permit it.

What happened to the agreed upon executive session for a committee vote on Tuesday the 24th, leading to a floor vote on the 26th?

to mention that Kerry is going to vote for confirmation before he votes against it.

I'm shocked, I was counting on YES votes from both Leahy and Durbin.  Darn.  

The only development worth watching will be whether Alito gets to 60 - less than that and the Dems will have to answer to their base for not launching a filibuster.

eating a philly cheesesteak

Durbin's office and Obama's office yesterday and politely asked for a yes vote.  I'm sure my message made it to the round file on the floor before it ever made it to the rectangular desk.

Baucus was really a surprise...if we can only get Nelson, with Chaffee likely to bail, shouldn't we be concerned that the left is going to try and mess this up?  it would be terrible, unprecedented, intellectually bankrupt and a load of lies, but that doesn't stop em.

Personally, I would like to see Democrats in unity vote against a nominee that the American people want to see on the Court.  I might call and encourage Senator Cantwell to vote against Alito, just so that and her vote against Roberts will hang like an albatross around her neck come election time.  If you compare how the Democrats have handled the Supreme Court nominees of Bush versus how the Republicans handled those under Bubba, it just makes it that much more idiotic.  Really, it is like they make it too easy sometimes.

If they filibuster, the Gang of 14 Republicans vote for the nuclear option... If they don't filibuster, Alito gets on the court in a partisan line vote.  If his numbers were low I might lose a little sleep, but they aren't... The American people clearly are with the Republicans on this one.

some day there will be another democratic president (although at this point, the party might let kennedy's wing drive them off a bridge beforehand), and i really hope we can participate in the same crap schummer and the rest do now.

the nutjob theories we could've pointed out in the writings of Ginsberg alone would've made a fillibuster threat realistic.  

remember, its not the president's perrogative!  we need a consensus nominee from our democratic presidents!

as low as the Democrats on SCOTUS nominees.

I still think it will be less than 60 total votes for Alito, but there will be no filibuster.  A few Dems in the gang of 14 will say, "I don't like him, but he's not an 'extraordinary' circumstance justifying a filibuster."  Instead, they will just vote against him on the floor.

Sen Ken Salazar released a statement announcing that he will oppose Alito

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4399968,
00.html

It's time for Republican senators to start announcing their vote intentions in the press to stop the drip, drip, drip of negative stories about Alito.  

The Dems are clearly trying to build momentum against the nominee by each announcing their opposition one by one and generating negative headlines each time they do.  Where are our Republican senators to come to the nonminee's defense with an announcement of their own?  Where are our Republican sentators extolling the nominee's virtues in the press?  When are the Republicans ever going to learn to play hardball with the Dems?

Their rabid moonbat base will not forgive letting Alito pass without a fillibuster attempt if he gets less than 60 votes to confirm. I would think they would be gaming it so he at least gets 61 or 62.

We don't play the same game as the Democrats. If the shoe were on the other foot and we attempted to fillibuster a Ginsberg, they would excercise the nuclear option in about 0.023 seconds, without any debate on the matter. We've were talking about it for years before the G14 even took it away.

being a moderate, centrist Democrat.

about whether Democrats can/will attempt a fillibuster.  Good news, I'd assume, for those supporting the Alito nomination.  The text and discussion can be found at volokh.com

If they were gaming it to get more than 60 votes, Salazar would not have come out today as a "no" vote.

I stick by my prediction originally made on 10/31/05 and renewed on 12/2/05 -- 53 votes (maybe as many as 54 or 55) to confirm, but no nuclear option (either 61 votes for cloture or no cloture vote because the Dems announce they had already counted 61 votes for cloture).

see:  http://www.redstate.com/comments/2005/12/2/112959/339/3#3

While on his way to the frozen tundra of Lambert Field.

According to Drudge, his chief creep Flug has a guy he's trying some last-minute shenanigans with.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash6.htm