Sen. Blanche Lincoln-A 'no' on Alito?

[kpete]

FLASH: A 'no' on Alito

Sen. Blanche Lincoln has scheduled a conference call with reporters this morning. The word out of Washington is that she will announce a vote against the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. She apparently will give a midday speech in the Senate detailing her reasons.


We heard Sen. Mark Pryor on the radio this morning saying he remained undecided. He said he thought Alito was qualified and had judicial temperament, but he wasn't decided on his ability to be impartial. Given Alito's animus toward civil rights cases and his preference for an omnipotent president (at least as long as the president is Republican), we think we can see where Pryor might be coming from on the reservation. It's not clear yet if the vote on Alito will occur this week or if some Democrats will mount a filibuster.


Some bloggers say that the Dems have 44 votes against Alito, enough to sustain a filibuster, but that eight Democrats won't support a filibuster, meaning it would fail. The conventional thinking is that the Arkansas senators won't filibuster. A question to ask the senator this morning, perhaps.

http://www.arktimes.com/weblogs/WeblogItemDetail.aspx?WebLogItemID=e2455f71-3a03-4ed1-9bdb-7ecbc48e83a9&WeblogID=dabe8285-8214-4a72-ae7c-7ed16bb5ed5b

[cindyw]

1. I think it is important for the Senators to force fellow Dems to vote

against the filibuster if they so choose. For the sake of the party it needs to be clear that there are Dems who want to filibuster.

[benburch]

2. But also likely a "no" on fillibuster... nt

[coffeenap]

3. staffer just said she will decide this afternoon--I asked for both a

vote against Alito and vote for filibuster. (my deceased mom grew up in Arkansas and would have wanted me to call--the staffer was kind when I told him this.)

[bigscott]

4. we need to know

where the people stand on a filibuster - make them vote FOR or AGAINST cloture - then we know who to defeat or support in the 2006 primaries

30 years of RW supreme court control people - that is what they are voting for

[jsamuel]

5. Working on Lincoln and Pryor filibusters...

[annabanana]

6. I faxed both of the the NYT editorial from today's paper

(with circles and arrows at paragraphs 5&6)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/opinion/26thur1.html

"But portraying the Alito nomination as just another volley in the culture wars vastly underestimates its significance. The judge's record strongly suggests that he is an eager lieutenant in the ranks of the conservative theorists who ignore our system of checks and balances, elevating the presidency over everything else. He has expressed little enthusiasm for restrictions on presidential power and has espoused the peculiar argument that a president's intent in signing a bill is just as important as the intent of Congress in writing it. This would be worrisome at any time, but it takes on far more significance now, when the Bush administration seems determined to use the cover of the "war on terror" and presidential privilege to ignore every restraint, from the Constitution to Congressional demands for information.

There was nothing that Judge Alito said in his hearings that gave any comfort to those of us who wonder whether the new Roberts court will follow precedent and continue to affirm, for instance, that a man the president labels an "unlawful enemy combatant" has the basic right to challenge the government's ability to hold him in detention forever without explanation. His much-quoted statement that the president is not above the law is meaningless unless he also believes that the law requires the chief executive to defer to Congress and the courts."

[sinkingfeeling]

7. I faxed both a letter yesterday telling them to filibuster based on

Alito's acceptance of the 'unitary executive' theory.