I was wrong, I wasn't even close...sorry

[HereSince1628]

As yesterday's thread unwound I read along with a sense of growing hope. I read, and let myself believe, that the filibuster variously had more than 30 supporters, that the supporters were only 2 away from stopping cloture, etc. That was wrong, I was so wrong.

To the extent that my participation in yesterday's threads contributed to other readers' putting their hopes at risk, I apologize.

[annabanana]

1. aw ...you had plenty of company

don't beat yourself up

[Strong Atheist]

2. Don't apologize, hope is ALWAYS a good thing. nt.

[unblock]

3. you can't judge by the final numbers

it might very well have been 2 votes away, or close to it.

but once people realize it's not gonna work, people change their final votes. plenty might have voted if we reached 41 but saw no upside in going on record on the doomed side of a filibuster attempt.

[skylarmae]

4. we must keep fighting to keep the truth alive to help our Country.

My hope and prayers are that we all are able to keep the energies necessary to get it done (as, according to the Constitution, is our duty).

Today I take heart in knowing 'perseverance furthers'.

[Totally Committed]

5. Awwww.... even I was right there with ya!

And, I'm old enough and jaded enough by now to have known better! LOL!

We were all had... (note my new sig line)

TC

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. How many of those people in your sig line

can we connect to Abramoff? We need to purge them from the party.

[marions ghost]

6. we will never know how close we were

--how many were tempted to join the filibuster, how many caved and went into the strange netherworld of giving eloquent, damaging, profoundly negative speeches against Alito while shying away from doing any real damage. They now have the perfect out to say I voted 'against' (but not where it counted).

I never thought we'd get the filibuster because of the early handful of obvious Dem defectors, but I am, like you, depressed by the NUMBER of those who went along in the end. 19--I never expected so many, especially since B**h is so vulnerable and the arguments against Alito were so strong. Just goes to show how weak is our defense against the Neo-con juggernaut. That weakness is apparent in the so-called 'moderate' wing of the Repug party also. The centrists are handing it to the cons on a silver platter.

No apologies needed, OP--you have to look behind the scenes to see the effects of our substantial efforts. Sure it would be nice to see it in a concrete "win"--but rest assured we changed the nature of the debate. We're standing up now and we will be heard if we continue these campaigns. We sent a message that we (awakened Fighting Liberals) are just not going to roll over ANY more. We've had it. If these Dinos don't get that....they WILL.

I think we need to concentrate on strengthening our own ranks and put up our own candidates, and let the People have a CHOICE, for a change.

[seabeyond]

7. if you are going ot battle you HAVE to hope. it is inherent or else

you really arent battling. that is the emotional tie here. the odds of this happening was nil, but too many dems wnated to do it. so if you are going ot do it, gotta hope. otherwise an empty exercise. i was in "hope" too by yesterday afternoon. so.....

we all get over it. and like i have said over and over, really being into this for three fuor days, i learned a lot. i can pull a lot of good things out of it. wasnt a waste by any means.

[tn-guy]

8. Takes a big person to acknowledge a mistake

Don't be too hard on yourself. Instead use this as an opportunity to take a fresh look at things.

I know I've been blasted for what seems to be heresy (and probably will be blasted for this post) but I'm convinced that this and other defeats are not the fault of the "centrists" or the DLC but rather due to the barnacle encrusted "old lions" of the party such as Kennedy, Kerry, Leahy, etc.

Think about it for a moment. It's been roughly 3 months since Alito was nominated. In that time did any of these party "leaders" make a credible case on why Alito should not be confirmed to the public at large? I'm not talking about convincing the base, they were easily convinced and needed no persuasion. I'm talking about Joe and Janice Sixpack. The obvious answer is no. Their performance during the hearings was pathetic. Kennedy looked like a hypocritical buffoon when he castigated Alito for a lack of understand of the plight of women and minorities and then had to immediately resign from the restrictive Owl Club.

The Democratic Party didn't lose this fight. Just as thousands of troops in WWI were killed due to the ineptitude of generals who failed to adapt to changing circumstance the Democratic rank and file is being sacrificed due to the political ineptitude of the "old guard". If democrats want to start winning political battles again a new set of leaders will have to emerge and the current ones will have to accept an honorable, silent retirement. I don't mean they have to step down from office, but they need to keep their mouths shut during debate and planning strategy. How many more defeats will it take for people to wake up?

[MuseRider]

10. You have to have hope.

If we did not have hope we would not have mobilized. The one thing I am never angry about is being pushed by hope, even if we all know it is an impossible task. People who can instill hope in us and keep us going are the ones who are the leaders.

We all wanted to believe so we fell willingly for all of the messages of hope. You and the hopeful are not the problem.

[jarab]

11. And, while we're at it, a toast to those

here who had the foresight to have figured our our political weaknesses beforehand, and against great posting odds, had the "courage" to tell us: "It ain't gonna happen!"
Those few "pessimists" threw away their rose coloreds a long time ago.
Admit it, they were right in not embracing the "impossible".
Perhaps now we might understand HOW same-day polling can go SO WRONG. We have not only experienced it before; we reinvented it yesterday.
A toast to the realists on DU! You might be noticed and appreciated next time 'round, but it's doubtful.
You were right! We Democrats are pitifully fractured and weak when it really counts.

...O...