New York Times: Senator Kerry -- "Well, what's the future?"

[understandinglife]

Kerry Gets Cool Response to Call to Filibuster Alito

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 — Senator John Kerry today continued his apparently futile attempt to block the confirmation of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. for the Supreme Court, saying that the vote on President Bush's nominee would be "a vote for history."

Showing no inclination to abandon his attempt to start a filibuster, the Massachusetts Democrat said again that Judge Alito had demonstrated, in 15 years on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, that he would entrust government and the police with far too much power and would "take the country backwards on critical issues" if he became a justice.

Mr. Kerry acknowledged that some of his Democratic colleagues had tried to dissuade him from trying to start a filibuster, a parliamentary debate-and-delay move that requires 60 votes to overturn. "I've heard disagreements: 'preserve your gunpowder for the future,' " he said, paraphrasing his fellow lawmakers' objections. "Well, what's the future?"

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But Senator Kerry vowed to persist nonetheless. "This is a vote for history," he said.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/politics/27cnd-confirm.html?ei=5094&en=a3d2269586bf200e&hp=&ex=1138424400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

Yes. Let's "We the People ..." make some history in the next few days, weeks, months, ... and END the Bush neoconster regime.


Peace.

[Niche]

1. THE FUTURE IS NOW!!!!

[understandinglife]

4. And, that is just what Senator Kerry has told the other Dem Senators.

Peace.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "apparently futile" WTF? NYT just spouting neo-fascist propaganda

what a rag. Deserving of no respect.

[blm]

3. Kirkpatrick writes another dismissive piece of Kerry and the filibuster.

Big surprise from the mediawhores protecting the Bushboy.

[Avalux]

7. He's an asshole.

Have we learned by now not to listen to this shit? I hope so. It means nothing....keep going folks!

[no_more_rhyming]

16. figuring since he's already lost once,

he can be their sacrificial goat.

[Selatius]

5. We've been preserving our gunpowder a lot these days

We preserved it on the IWR. We preserved it on bankruptcy reform. We preserved it on judge Roberts' nomination, and they say we should do it again now. The question is when will the powder ever be used?

[converted_democrat]

9. That's my question too....n/t

[understandinglife]

11. I think Senator Kerry is using it. And, if we keep the pressure on ...

... through the weekend, I think we can convince the Senate Dems it is time to fight and to never stop until Bush's neoconster, anti-American regime is crushed (legally).


Peace.

[Straight Shooter]

18. Judge Alito will rule that Democrats will not be allowed to use gunpowder.

That will be the final irony.

[suffragette]

6. I called Senator Kerry's office to express my thanks

to him for standing up with courage and conviction and leading this effort.
One of many calls I've been making to senators offices and the happiest one I've made.

[converted_democrat]

8. Kerry is regaining much respect in my eyes.....K&R!!! n/t

[understandinglife]

10. He is truly leading. The 'powder has been dry' long enough.

Peace.

[LittleClarkie]

20. I liked that part of Kerry's speech

If not now, then when? When do we stop keeping our powder dry?

That could have been written by someone here.

[Justitia]

12. Boy! The media is working OVERTIME to convince us we can't win!

Methinks they doth protest too much.

It aint over til it's over, but they would LOVE to convince you otherwise huh?

I mean, seriously, if we were that freaking doomed in this episode, why would they be trying so hard to hammer this home?

THE NUMBERS AREN'T THERE / FUTILE / WON'T HAPPEN / CONFIRMATION ASSURED / GIVE UP / GIVE UP / GIVE UP / YOU CAN'T WIN / YOU CAN'T DO IT / GO HOME / STOP CALLING

It's like they are trying to fucking hypnotize us with this crap.

[blm]

14. That's the exact same impression I get - they're working overtime

to convince the country and the Dem lawmakers.

[Just Me]

13. Wow!

:wow:

Okay. I gotta' salute NYT on this one!! :patriot:

On edit: I got the impression that the NYT was acknowledging the courage of this underdog to confront the powers that be. I see others have a completely different impression of this article and it makes me wonder how the public in general interprets it.

[babylonsister]

17. I spoke to my dad yesterday; he's a political junkie,

lives in FL, and gets the NYT. I asked him what he thought about the filibuster; he was noncommital (not negative), and mentioned the good, positive article he read in the NYT. So, it wasn't a bad thing.

[DemReadingDU]

15. K&R

[LittleClarkie]

19. If this guy wants a column so damn bad

why don't they give him one. Meanwhile could he keep the RW editorialize OUT of his damn articles? Hobnobbing, quixotic, futile.

Cover your ears people:

FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING FUCK!

I know, I know. It's the fillibuster that's important, not Kerry.

But I've been reading blogs where it seems that because it is Kerry, that people who would be behind a fillibuster are sort of... whining about how it was not soon enough, he's doing it wrong, he announced too soon (yes, he is both early and late), he announced out of the country (in Washington on Wed, Davos on Thurs, Washington on Fri -- I call that some fancy human ping pong, myself).

I get the feeling that because it IS Kerry, some folks are finding reasons to find fault. It's one thing go have some criticisms. But hey, can we do that AFTER the vote. How about concentrating on winning first, you know?

It just confirms for me that it won't much matter what Kerry does to some people. He is perpetually wrong, regardless.

Meanwhile, I'm so proud of him I could burst.

Hell, if I can give kudos to Hillary for not backing down after her plantation comment, then surely those who are not thrilled with Kerry can lay that aside and get with the fight. Surely we're all on the same side.

Except for Kirkpatrick of course.

Sorry for the slightly off the subject rant. It's been bugging me. But then I was a Kerry supporter before all this started happening.

[mcscajun]

21. Different article had this quote from his floor speech...

"I know it's an uphill battle," Kerry said on the Senate floor. "I hear their arguments. You know, reserve your gunpowder for the future. Well, what is the future if it changes so dramatically at this moment in time?"

[karynnj]

22. For what it's worth they DIDN'T put this into the print copy of the paper

They had a photo of Kerry on Capital Hill - after speaking in the Senate. They said he was continuing to push for filibuster. (It had a decent one liner from the speech) Very short, but at minimum neutral - I thought it was positive. (Initially I thought it was bad it was so short - but the combination of the photo and a very short article (or long photo caption) might be read by more people than a longer article.

[LittleClarkie]

23. That's what I noticed too though.

This is a rewrite of what they had in Friday's paper. Someone appears to have rewritten it so that it's a bit less negative. That's the third rewrite I've seen so far. First they changed "hobnobbed" to "mingled" then they rewrote the whole article to include what happened when Kerry got back into town. Kirkpatrick is still editorializing though, I see. I did look for this article today when I saw the thread, but found nothing.

A photo you say? Was it in Saturday's paper?