Scalitovision 2006: No filibuster for Sammy A.

Alas, the filibuster has gone down:

Republican senators, aided by 19 Democrats, cleared the path yesterday for Samuel A. Alito Jr. to join the Supreme Court and for President Bush to put his stamp firmly on the nine-member bench.

The Senate voted 72 to 25 to end debate on Alito's nomination and to allow a roll call on his confirmation today, shortly before noon. Alito's supporters garnered a dozen more votes than the 60 they needed to choke off a Democratic filibuster effort, which would have allowed debate to continue indefinitely.

As some of you know, I supported the effort to filibuster the Alito nomination -- see here and here. After supporting Roberts last year, I simply could not look past Alito's overt extremism on executive power and his covert (and sometimes not-so-covert) extremism on key social issues like abortion. Alito has been brilliantly packaged to look like a modest, kind-hearted (dare I say compassionate?) conservative who will simply examine the law and interpret the Constitution with care and an open mind, but he is in reality a blank check for the imperial aspirations of Bush and Cheney. And his nomination is the latest blatant example of conservative court-packing.

And where were the Democrats? Or, rather, who were the Democrats who stood idly by (or perhaps cowering in a corner somewhere) while Alito was rammed through the Senate? Well, see Digby at Hullabaloo. Atrios lists the 25 here (cheers). Booman Tribune lists the others here (jeers).

And, for more, see Political Animal, The Heretik, The Left Coaster, Seeing the Forest, The Agonist, and Firedoglake. And go through my blogroll of liberal blogs -- all highly recommended -- to survey what others in the liberal blogosphere are saying. I don't think anyone's particularly happy tonight.

In the end, like Jane at Firedoglake, I give out a big thank you to John Kerry.