19 Democrats voted for cloture on the vote for Judge Alito. Did they know or just not care...

[madfloridian]

what an ideologue he was? I remember trying to get an answer from Bill Nelson's office, no luck. They all had to know that a Yes vote on cloture assured his appointment to the highest court in the land.

Howard Dean went on TV and spoke passionately about why they should fight this nomination. He wrote a widely published editorial.

Howard Dean: Alito fails the test

It's been widely acknowledged that President Bush had a bad year in 2005. One of the problems America faces as a result is the White House's willingness to make decisions based on what's good for the administration politically rather than what's right for America. The nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to replace Sandra Day O'Connor is an example of this. The president hopes to make up ground with his right-wing base, instead of appointing someone who will have the confidence of a wide range of Americans. Over the past few months, as we've learned more about Judge Alito's core beliefs and the kind of justice he would be, it has become clear why the Senate should reject his nomination.

Judge Alito's decisions, such as his attacks on the Family and Medical Leave protections and his willingness to excuse the grossest form of sexual harassment in the workplace based on technicalities, have harmed working people. Judge Alito has also attacked Americans' personal liberties by approving the inappropriate strip search of a 10-year-old and defending the construction of all-white juries by unscrupulous prosecutors trying black defendants. A Supreme Court justice must show impartiality and fairness. Judge Alito does not meet that test.

...."I oppose Judge Alito's nomination. I want to be proud of our government again. That can only happen if the rule of law, and the integrity that it requires, are clearly foremost in the consideration of every decision made by the court. There are simply too many writings in Judge Alito's record currying favor with the extreme right that show a willingness to favor government power over individual liberties.

But 19 Democrats sided with the Republicans to bring it to a vote. Here they are, from Bob Fertik's blog at Democrats.com:

The Alito Betrayal

There was no reason for this betrayal. We only needed 40 39 of the 45 Democrats to sustain a filibuster. We could have won even if 5 6 Democrats who were flat-out stupid enough to believe Alito's lies (like Robert Byrd and Kent Conrad) had voted against the filibuster. (1)

Every Democratic Senator knew what was at stake - both in the rulings Justice Alito will make for the rest of his life, and in the anger - even rage - that will greet their decision to betray us.

So why did these Democrats decide to stab us all in the back?

For one simple reason: because we let them.

And here are the 19 who voted for cloture:

Akaka (HI), Baucus (MT), Bingaman (NM), Byrd (WV), Cantwell (WA), Carper (DE), Conrad (ND), Dorgan (ND), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Rockefeller (WV), Salazar (CO)

And I figure that even though few voted yes on the final vote, they knew the cloture vote was the one that counted.

I wonder if they realized just what they were getting.

The final vote:

http://www.c-span.org/congress/alito_senate.asp

All votes are listed there, but the yes votes from the Democrats were Byrd, Conrad, Johnson (SD), Ben Nelson.

But the deed was done with the cloture vote.

And we all pay the consequences.

[brentspeak]

1. And yet another Democrat-bashing thread by madfloridian

[Beelzebud]

3. On this issue, those 19 DESERVE a good verbal bashing...

The Republican party got where it is today because it's rank and file just smiled, said everything is ok, and just went along with every piece of shit thing they did.

Let's not make that same mistake.

Our representatives deserve to be called out on it when they fail to do the right thing.

[Phredicles]

7. Yeah, THIS is a perfect example of Democratic complicity

in encroaching fascism (and it's not even subtle here).:grr:

[madfloridian]

4. Let's talk about the rulings so far, and in the future.

Not whether I am "bashing" or not. Reality is reality.

[Catchawave]

9. I might be wrong, but didn't these Democrats vote with Bush?

That would be DINO bashing :evilgrin:

[mmonk]

14. Yet another truth telling thread that hurts.

To bash conjures up just slinging mud.

[Forkboy]

15. Yet another myopic,head in the sand response.

[madfloridian]

17. So, brentspeak, your comment indicates you think it was ok to do that.

And that the consequences shouldn't be pointed out for fear of someone saying we are bashing.

Those days are over. Voting has consequences.

[leftchick]

31. apparently so

the new wing of the democratic party...

[bettyellen]

34. this was too important to let go without a fight. there were serious problems w/ Alito

and as a woman, i am disgusted the dems didn't make the effort.

[malaise]

2. Shame, shame shame

Akaka (HI), Baucus (MT), Bingaman (NM), Byrd (WV), Cantwell (WA), Carper (DE), Conrad (ND), Dorgan (ND), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Rockefeller (WV), Salazar (CO)

[madfloridian]

6. I remember calling and getting nowhere.

.

[redqueen]

37. yup... same here

makes it really hard to stay optimistic, and try to recruit others to lobby congress on behalf of the public interest, when our requests that they avoid such very obvious problems are met with silence.

[G_j]

5. I remember it all too well

:argh:

[depakid]

8. Every single person who supports them shares the blame for these decisions

There's really no two ways about it.

[Individualist]

10. The only thing worse than a neocon is a neocon enabler.

:grr:

[Gold Metal Flake]

11. Remeber this during primary time.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Yukari Yakumo]

12. Look at where the 19 are from.

A lot of them come from states that voted Bush twice. Maybe they were voting with their constituents in mind, not the party.

Well... except for UnHoly Joe. We know where his loyalties lie.

[madfloridian]

16. Well, see I have a thing about Democrats acting like Democrats..

even in so called Red States. It was well-known Alito appealed to Bush's narrow base. Not too many Floridians were that extreme, so Nelson did not have to do that.

[Tesha]

30. Curiously enough, Republicans never seem to worry about...

> Look at where the 19 are from. A lot of them come from states
> that voted Bush twice. Maybe they were voting with their
> constituents in mind, not the party.

Curiously enough, Republicans never seem to worry about
such subtelties as what their constituents want. Take
New Hampshire for example: Poll after poll shows that
we Granite Staters are vastly opposed to the war, but
do you see our two Republican Senators voting against it?

Of course not, because that would be a vote against
their party. The *MOST* you'll ever see is the Republicans
allowing a Senator to vote against the party when it doesn't
matter and when that Senator needs to appear "moderate" in
order to win re-election. You'll see a lot of that this year
with John Sununu (from NH) and Susan Collins (from Maine).

Democrats, on the other hand, routinely wander off the
democratic/Democratic reservation with no punishment
from either the party or the voters. Well, up until
now...

Tesha

[redqueen]

38. hence the public perception of dems being 'wimps' n't

[leftchick]

32. oh, so it was a political vote, not their conscience?

that makes it okay. :puke:

[redqueen]

39. yeah, it's only a lifetime political appointment

with GRAVE consequences, for generations to come

nothing serious or anything, so why not play politics with it?

[kath]

13. Hey, they were KEEPING THE POWDER DRY! And dry powder is the most important thing in the world,

don'cha know???

[madfloridian]

18. It should not make people mad to have things like this posted.

They knew as did everyone just about that Alito was very tied to the extreme right wing. For 19 to allow it to come to a vote means they either were not paying attention or they did not care.

We will lose abortion rights, they are not likely on this court to take the side of gays on anything...they have given two shocking opinions today with more to come. Just imagine in your mind how far our Democrats would get with them on holding the WH accountable. :shrug:

We are not good Democrats if we don't call attention to his and remind them of what they have done.

[in_cog_ni_to]

19. Remember those days when DU was emailing and calling EVERY DAY to get those nominations stopped?

We begged and pleaded. They must have had THOUSANDS of phone calls and emails and NONE OF THEM MATTERED! Those assholes were going to do what they wanted to do no matter what. Their elections were more important than our country. It's as simple as that. Now look at where we are. I hope they're happy.

[madfloridian]

21. That's exactly right.....our calls did not matter to them.

Just like they did not matter on Iraq, or on the bankruptcy bill.

[EFerrari]

23. Those were bad days And imho, Pelosi is making exactly

the same mistake with impeachment. Not only Nancy but whatever the group is that decides these things.

They're not listening to us and they're making a mistake and WE will have to bear the consequences.

:rant:

[KoKo]

35. Yes...remember it well. It was a horrible day when he was confirmed...

We felt like the stuffing was kicked out of us. I don't think any other efforts after that got near the amount of people involved because so many worked so hard. We lost alot of momentum with that one.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

20. And don't forget the 22 Democrats that voted for Roberts.

What I can't understand is, how did Russ Feingold vote for him? I forgot about that...... :(


http://www.c-span.org/congress/roberts_senate.asp

[redqueen]

40. yes... that was shocking.

*sigh*

[Rex]

22. I have relatives who voted for Dems that liked Roberts and thought

Alito was just a court filler, didn't think any big deal.

Of course I couldn't believe it, thought maybe they all went mad in the head.

Majority denial.

[Horse with no Name]

24. I remember the teeth gnashing around here when those two fascists were confirmed

Many just kept telling us that IF we elected a Democratic Congress in 2006--things would be all better...

[Rex]

25. Just what America needed, two more corporate suits on the bench.

I watched people I know to be intelligent, just act as if it was no big deal.

Unbelievable.

[Horse with no Name]

26. Most of the savvy women on this board

KNEW that those two fascists would be coming for our rights. Several told us to quit overreacting...
and yes, several acted like it was no big deal. I knew differently in my heart.:(

[EFerrari]

27. We saw them coming a mile away.

:(

[Rex]

28. I think a lot of people at heart know what these

assholes are trying to do. I just wish we could stop having these horrible conversations about one law after the other being destroyed for generations to come! I makes my heart sick.

[Vidar]

29. Their votes were well paid for.

[Virginia Dare]

33. Sadly, agreed...

Roberts was the choice of the corporate overlords.

[Coexist]

36. I worked so damn hard against Alito

I called, faxed, hand-wrote letters, even visited my friggin' Senator's office.

It broke my heart.

[ooglymoogly]

41. Yes brentspeak, lets all just pretend these are just good democrats

tra la la la everything is good on the democratic side of the isle tra la la...try checking out the voting record of most of these senators...If we do not make them irrelevant in 2008 they will continue to haunt us in all future catastrophe's facing us. And this is not the first time many of these republicans um democrats voted no or yes to protect their democratic voting record then the opposite when it really mattered and did not count on their democratic credentials which they rely on to keep them in office.

[rox63]

42. I've never been prouder of my 2 Senators (Kerry & Kennedy)

than the day they led the filibuster against Alito. We will regret for a very long time that it failed. :(

[madfloridian]

43. Yes, Kerry and Kennedy did us proud.

:hi: