According to Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) so many senators “intensely oppose” Alito for Supreme Court the Democrats may have enough votes to sustain a filibuster.
Dubin has declared that he’s voting no, and you can practically hear Durbin’s own distain for Alito:
“In case after case, he has voted — often as the lone dissenter on his court — against the dispossessed, the poor and the powerless who finally made their way to his court,” Durbin said […]
As the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, it’s Durbin’s job to count votes for and against Alito. He said he won’t know until Tuesday if there are enough strong opponents to filibuster Alito’s nomination.
“A week ago, I would have told you it’s not likely to happen,” Durbin said. “As of [Wednesday], I just can’t rule it out. I was surprised by the intensity of feeling of some of my colleagues. It’s a matter of counting. We have 45 Democrats, counting [Vermont independent] Jim Jeffords, on our side. We could sustain a filibuster if 41 senators … are willing to stand and fight.”
Apparently, even Chafee is leaning no.
But Durbin needs 41, or the filibuster is off, so:
KEEP THE PRESSURE UP, CALL YOUR SENATORS!
If Repug, tell them “No” to Alito; if Democrat: FILIBUSTER!
(The phones are ringing off the hook in Washington; you might want to try your senators’ local office, contact info below:)
CALL YOUR SENATORS (Click here)
Phone, fax, and email addresses for the Judiciary Committee.
Frist is denying Democrats time to speak on the floor. We need to get the word out about why Alito needs to be filibustered:
Write a letter to the editor of your local news paper.
John Edwards has endorsed this petition for FILIBUSTER!
People for the American Way has collected nearly 65,000 signatures to send to the Senate, please add yours: Save the Court Petition
Move On.org’s Stop Alito petition
Democratic Party’s Reject Alito Petition
Stop the NRA’s Oppose Alito Petiton
And while you’re at it, please sign: Planned Parenthood Petition
Urge Congress to support Plan B
UPDATE:
MORE NEW ACTIONS AND PETITIONS:
National Coalition for Disability Rights
National Council of Jewish Women
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women and Families
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Thanks for the reminder that this thing is not over yet. Who knows, the Dems might actually surprise me and show some faint indication of courage.
diary. God!!!!!How close are we!!!!!!How many more faxes and letters and emails will it take to bring on the Filibuster. All of the positive powers that be please be with our friends Super, Tampopo, and Cedwyn as they go to demand that our Army fight this war because this is a real war! This is the real War on Terror and the Democrats must fight or die freedomless within their hearts long before their bodies are ready to be dead!
Thinking Tennessee here, now who are my senators again!!?? I feel so helpess to this issue. I scream out for help from those of you out there who can make a difference in this case. I can only help by calling others, but they do not like that if I am not one of their states ppl’s. SSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO Please, help me ou t in this!
Click on Call Your Senators, and you will be able to look up who they are. (Search by state: TN)
or go to the “Write a letter to your local newspaper” link, click on it and in the left hand column you’ll see the area for loooking up who your senators are.
Judy, speaking as a fellow Tennessean, I think Brenda was being sarcastic. Thanks for the great diaries, though. I’ll let Frist and Alexander know again that they’re at least being watched, although I’m sure by now they just automatically route my correspondence to the circular file (I’m sure Frist does, given some of the incoherent replies I’ve gotten to correspondence from his office – or maybe it’s the folks he hires, LOL).
I feel your pain…Santorum and Specter are mine.
to harass your Republican representatives!
They should know that the moderate voters of their state, don’t cotton to wingnut Alito.
I’ll see your pair and raise you a Cornyn and a KBH…
And may Jeeeebus forgive them for they know not what they do…
but in my book they know PRECISELY what they do and for that they can never be forgiven.
Love to forget `em, though.
I’m stuck with a wingnut and a wolf in maverick’s clothing – Kyl and McCain
Please let us have at least one more than enough votes to pull this off! The man can’t remember belonging to THAT organization at Princeton! Give me a break. That alone is enough to block his nomination without getting into his judicial record at all. Of course his judicial record opens many other doors that hopefully will lead to a successful filibuster. Call/write your Senators!
I think Levin’s office knows me on a first name basis by now–I’m always calling about something!!
I’m probably too gritty and too demanding but I know no other way these days. Nobody seems to really listen to anybody who acts remotely decent or nice. My email to Biden was even more demanding, I said that if Cojones weren’t shown in this showdown I don’t see how the party will ever give him the nomination if he really wants it because this Alito thing is ripping the bases heart right out of it.
“Diane,
We have to Filibuster Alito. This lack of real fight is ripping the heart right out of the Dem base! We have to have backbone and nothing less than backbone is going to do. We don’t care if you guys lose, but if you guys fold the base will consider you all too fucked up to ever trust again. I know that I’m demanding a risk, but there comes a day when the wind is at your back and you realize in your soul that it is your turn. I am an Army wife and my husband did one tour in Iraq and probably will do two, the Defense Department is databasing War Protesters and I did Crawford. I drove almost nonstop to arrive the Wednesday before the threatened arrest on Thursday. I left my disabled in the care of my husband not knowing what to expect, if I was going to be arrested with Cindy Sheehan, or if anybody in those whole country would even care. I took my risk along with sending my husband to Iraq. We need this risk now from you.”
wyden is voting no:
http://www.dembloggers.com/story/2006/1/20/192524/839
if you have one senator voting no and the other one on the fence, throw this at them: “well, i’m your constituent as well – how can my senators have two completely different senses of what the state wants?”