It seems to me that John Kerry realizes he likely won’t be able to sustain a filibuster long enough to stop Alito’s nomination, assuming he can even get it started.  What if he’s thinking about the much shorter term?

Turn to the next page, where we speculate about the Kerry filibuster, next Tuesday and why the Times can’t add.
qushner’s diary :: ::

Maybe the true desired consequences are not so much to stop a lifetime appointment as to deny Bush a political victory for the SOTU and to control the media discourse on Tuesday.  If The Senate chamber is filled Tuesday with Democrats speaking passionately about issues such as unrestrained executive power, individuals’ rights and a woman’s right to choose, it could help the media frame the State of the Union Address in a way that would be less favorable to the Republican reelection efforts.

On another note, will someone please send a calculator to David Kirkpatrick of The New York Times.  Nothing fancy.  Just something that will help him add and subtract, because he could use the help.

In this morning’s paper he writes:

More than 60 senators have already pledged to support him….

But a few paragraphs later, in the very same article, we learn that

With Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Byrd bring the number of Democrats pledging support for Judge Alito to three.

And that even if

No Republicans have said they will vote against him,

it may be a bit too soon to jump to conclusions since

Two Republican supporters of abortion rights, Senators Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, have not declared how they will vote.

Now if my memory serves, the present Senate consists in 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and 1 Independent who caucuses with the Democrats.  So:

55 (Republicans) – 2 (Snowe and Chafee) + 3 (Nelson, Johnson and Byrd) = 56 < 60 votes

Repeat after me: It ain’t over yet!  (And even if it is, the Dems can gain something while losing.)

P.S. My girlfriend thought a helpful image for a filibuster effort would be a pictorial collage of voters from all fifty states gathering to demonstrate against the Alito nomination.  Does anyone have access to a network that could make this happen?

Cross-posted at Daily Kos.