Failure to filibuster Alito = DeFacto nuking of the filibuster

[Walt Starr]

IF we do not use the filibuster on this nominee, then the filibuster has already been nuked, except the Dems will allow the Republicans the option when roles end up being reversed.

If not now, when?

If not against Alito, then against whom?

[tk2kewl]

1. well... you are half right. The filibuster would make a comeback if

there were ever another Democratic Prez.

[politicaholic]

5. Yup, and the republicans would bring it back...

because they looooove to make America a hot bed of lies and contradiction.

[Burning Water]

8. If there were

a Democratic President AND a Democratic Senate. If there is a Republican Senate, well, they wouldn't need a filibuster to kill the nomination, would they??

[beyurslf]

2. That;'s our biggest problem. We like knowing that we play by the rules and

are right.
They like to win.

[Xipe Totec]

4. If this is what Repubs call winning, they can have it.

If we don't care to play by the rules, or about being right, there's no point in remaining a Democrat.

Never surrender.

[beyurslf]

7. And this is why they have controlled the government for a decade.

You can't win the war by saying that they broke the rules. You win by fighting fire with fire and doing whatever it takes. If they are mean and dirty and rotten and break every rule--then we have to do the same. And we must stop doing it in reaction to them. Do it first.

The Repubs don't care if they go nuclear in the Senate because they know that when we have control of the Senate again that we would never do it to them.
They will go negative and attack and attack and attack. They don't care if it is all lies. You think they cared that everything they said about Max Cleland was a lie? Why would they--who has the seat now? And we would certainly never tell a lie about them in order to win.
Negative politics works. Being mean and vicious works. Lying is successful. Changing the rules of the game to your advantage is necessary sometimes.

It is all good and great to know we are "right" about something. And we can sit back and rest assured that we know our cause is just. And while we do all this, they will run the government and this country into the ground.
I don't give a damn about being right anymore. I want to win.

[Xipe Totec]

9. If all I wanted to do was to win, I could just joint the GOP

It would be easier.


No thanks.

[Walt Starr]

10. Then be a loser.

I'm done being a loser. This is war. Fight or die.

[beyurslf]

12. Thank you. We have had that attitude for so long. Our ideas mean

nothing if the Repubs consistently win and enact their own ideas into law. It is not enough to be right. The loser doesn't write the laws or the history.

[Walt Starr]

13. BINGO

If the Dems want to continue to be the losers, I'll move on.

[beyurslf]

14. I work with a lot of local candidates here who are always saying they

don't want to be negative. I get so tired of hearing the "positive campaign" crap and having them ignore me when I say that their opponent will be negative and nasty and mean and they will wait till the last minute to do it if they have to. They 3 days before the election when some disgusting nasty hate piece hits they come running over all upset and wondering what to do because certain people in the state party have told them the best reaction to a negative ad si ti ognore it. By speaking out against it, they give the ad credence. Complete bull shit, of course. Don't say anything and people think it is true. Then they wonder why they lose on election day.

[sui generis]

3. Oh more than that

We need to shut down government by quorum.

If they want to put a ideologue into a supreme court position and have him RAM some 2000 year old goatherder idea of morality down our throat by not taking real, objective, principled stands on the INTENT of the constitution applied to living in the 21st century, then we don't need him.

At core, he doesn't have a job, except by our grace. In a country where half the people think the other half is too liberal or too conservative, having an extremist ideologue (of either side) is not beneficial to the structure of the supreme court.

Nobody in government really has a job without our consent, and we need to flex our political muscle in a meaningful way to make that point.

[Cyrano]

6. It's time for Dem politicos to find some backbone -- not to mention

patriotism.

Bush and his new nominee are exactly what this country is NOT about.

It's way past time for Democratic senators to throw their bodies across the railroad tracks to protect the rest of us.

And any Dem pol who doesn't do so need not wait for any of us to vote for him/her again. What the hell difference would it make?

And if the filibuster is declared null and void, it's time for a revolution. Yeah, we'll probably lose, but if this knuckle dragger wins confirmation, haven't we already lost?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. You and I agree on this one Walt.

Unless they're reserving the filibuster to block the bill setting up the camps and ovens, now is the time. Or, should I say, way past the time.