Kos offers a "Reality Check" Good read

[WI_DEM]

As many of you freak out at the Democrats, you need to keep some things in mind. We only have 44 Democrats. 44. Jeffords was a REpublican and remains the most conservative "member" of our caucus. We never had him in play. We never had Nebraska's Ben Nelson either because of local political factors. So we're down to 43. 43.

Not much of a margin for error, is it?

Then consider the solid-red-state Dems--

We have two Democrats in North Dakota, one in South Dakota, and one in Montana. In the south, we have two in Arkansas, two in West Virginia, and one in Louisiana.

That's nine Democrats, who, like it or not, we are blessed to have in the Senate. Shit on them if you want, but would your rather the count be 43 or 34? But fact is, we're not going to get these guys 100 or even 80 percent of the time. That is, if we want any chance at remaining competitive in the Senate...

We need more Dems, and we need more good Dems. Tester's headline on his campaign website states that he'd vote 'no' on Alito. Let's replace Conrad Burns with him. In Vermont, Bernie Sanders would be an easy 'no' and a much more reliable progressive vote than Jeffords ever was. Both Matt Brown and Sheldon Whitehouse in Rhode Island would be reliable "no' votes, and more likely to filibuster than Chafee.

In Ohio, both Paul Hackett and Sherrod Brown would be guranteed votes against Alito. While Missouri's Claire McCaskill said she wouldn't filibuster Alito, she would vote against him...

Ahh, you're thinking, we can say "fuck Ford and Casey (Harold Ford in TN and Bob Casey in PA), right? Absolutely not. Those guys, even if tehy might vote for an Alito, would vote for Harry Reid as majority leader, and the Dems would control the chambers committees...

www.dailykos.com

[cali]

1. Spot on.

I'll be thrilled to vote for Bernie in November. Let's take back the Senate.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Best Thing He's Ever Posted

Spells it out as it is and how it has to be. Something I've said and been flamed for here in the past, but reality sucks.

Not only worth a read, but worth bookmarking and emailing as well.

[mmonk]

3. A senate with what power?

Checks and balances would no longer be in play. I personally don't want my constitutional rights sold down the river for any excuse. I personally don't want my autistic son's basic rights sold down the river for any excuse. Anyone who does is my political enemy no matter any excuse. Some things are just damn wrong.

[HootieMcBoob]

4. He's right

as much as it will make us feel good to push for a filibuster, even if we get it won't stop Alito from being confirmed. I heard Governor Schweitzer this morning on Rachel Maddow's show and he said that we need to pick our fights well and as shitty as it sounds I'm afraid it's true. The country will find out when Roe v. Wade is overturned what this is all about when we go back to the days of the coat hanger. Republicans need to be careful of what they wish for, they just might get it.

[Joe for Clark]

5. You assume you have to "win" to "win"

It is not true.

I don't know how we link up together WI DEM - guess we think alike.

You can lose battles and win the wars - that is why we are not part of Britan today.

We lost 80 or 85% of the battles then.

Our whole problem is that if we do not fight - we will lose. We don't have to win all the fights. But we have to fight.

Joe

[DefenseLawyer]

6. This assumes

that supporting the filibuster will be a real political liability for red state democrats. I think that's crazy. The average voter doesn't even know Alito's name, much less what a filibuster is. Sure anti-choice activists will be up in arms, but those activists would have been up in arms anyway. They will be voting republican even if half their candidates are in prison. The average voter cares about jobs and honesty and someone that will stand up and be counted. "He didn't vote for cloture!" doesn't sound like much of an attack ad to me. John Kerry lost (or at least let it get close enough to fuck with) in my opinion, not because he was a liberal, but because he let them paint him (wrongly) as lacking conviction. By god he's showing a little conviction now, the rest of these hacks would do well to, if not join him, at least shut up and stay out of his way.