Polls Left Alito Filibuster Wide Open to Democrats

[kpete]

Monday, January 30, 2006
Polls Left Alito Filibuster Wide Open to Democrats
We have watched in dismay over the weekend as too many Democrats remained unwilling to heed Senator John Kerry’s call to filibuster the Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination. And we know that such political cowardice certainly can’t be the fear of going up against George W. Bush and what the public-relations hit might be from doing that.

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released Friday shows Bush’s national approval rating still in the cellar at 43 percent and no amount of the president saying “war on terror” and “September 11” over and over seems to be changing that. Bush doesn’t look to me like someone the opposition party should be afraid to mess with.

So I decided to look at some polling numbers on the Alito nomination and the Supreme Court, hoping that the exercise might shed some light on why many Democrats won’t show any spine in blocking Bush’s ultraconservative nominee.


No matter what public-opinion survey you look at over the last two months, they all lead to the same fundamental conclusion: That the American people are woefully uninformed about the judicial branch of government and can generally be convinced one way or the other on issues involving the Supreme Court.

What does that mean right now? It means that Senate Democrats sitting on the fence since Friday about filibustering the Alito nomination have missed the boat on a major opportunity to do the right thing for our country and achieve a major political victory at the same time.

http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2006/01/polls-left-alito-filibuster-wide-open.html

[second edition]

1. Absolutely right!!! We weren't even considered in the equation,

it was all about not looking like obstructionists to the far right. Our leaders could have made a compelling case against Alito on several fronts, but they didn't want to take on the Republicans. They had an obligation to inform the American public,this nomination was about a lot more than the debate over Abortion, yet no one did their jobs except Kennedy who was labeled by the press as being a bully.

[Armstead]

2. kick

[democrattruth]

3. Filibuster now.

[jmatthan]

4. Will he just ignore the poll on his site?

Amazing Poll on Jim Talent's, Republican Senator from Missouri, site:

Supreme Court

Now that the Senate Judiciary Committee has supported Judge Alito, should the full Senate vote to confirm him to the Supreme Court?
Your View?

Yes 18%
No 82%
Undecided 0%

Total Results: 1098

http://talent.senate.gov/default.cfm

How will he spin this?

[Rhiannon12866]

5. This has to be quicker than answering calls and I know that my senator's

office was keeping track of callers' views on this, the last time I phoned, early Friday. This was Senator Clinton, and she came out in support of the filibuster, just a couple of hours later. I can't see the point of posting this, unless he was using it to determine what people thought...:shrug:

I miss Gephardt.:-(

[madokie]

6. still at 82%