Cloture campaigning

Yesterday was a day for Democratic presidential hopefuls to burnish their credentials with the extreme left.  For Democrats, the popular formula for winning the presidency calls for seekers to campaign on the far left through the primary season.  That's where a candidate has to go for the money and the votes if there's any hope of capturing enough convention delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot.  With the nomination in hand the presidential candidate will then tone down the rhetoric for the general election campaign, and fight his way back to the center.  Without support from the center there's no hope of getting the votes to win a general election.

Yesterday's vote on the Motion to Invoke Cloture and end the debate on Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court, is a signal that Democratic primary campaign season is under way.  Among the Democrats voting against were the early front runners.  A vote for filibuster was a calculated bid for support from the extreme left.  Votes were counted.  Everybody knew a filibuster wouldn't stand.  Presidential hopefuls were free to vote their "consciences" without the fear that their votes might trigger the nuclear option.

Only Democrats voted against cloture, including several potential Democratic 2008 presidential hopefuls, such as Kerry, Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.).

“Many on my side oppose this nomination. They say they understand the threat [Alito] poses, but they argue that cloture is different. I don’t believe it is,” Kerry said in a floor statement. “It is the only way we can fully complete our constitutional duty of advice and consent. It is the only way we can stop a confirmation that we feel certain will cause irreversible damage to our country.”

Only on the radical left can the confirmation of an accomplished mainstream jurist be considered certain to cause "irreversible damage to our country."  So the intrepid Democrats stood tall against fantasies of irreversible damage, stood tall with assurances from the Kos Kids, "...we'll their backs on the next one too."

And tomorrow, when the sting of today's disappointment has lost some of its edge, thank those who stood with us. We told them we'd have their backs. Let them know it, and let them know we'll have their backs on the next one, too. The list is below...

Bayh, Evan (D-IN)
Biden, Joseph R., Jr. (D-DE)
Boxer, Barbara (D-CA)
Clinton, Hillary Rodham (D-NY)
Dayton, Mark (D-MN)
Dodd, Christopher J. (D-CT)
Durbin, Richard (D-IL)
Feingold, Russell D. (D-WI)
Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA)
Jeffords, James M. (I-VT)
Kennedy, Edward M. (D-MA)
Kerry, John F. (D-MA)
Lautenberg, Frank R. (D-NJ)
Leahy, Patrick J. (D-VT)
Levin, Carl (D-MI)
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ)
Mikulski, Barbara A. (D-MD)
Murray, Patty (D-WA)
Obama, Barack (D-IL)
Reed, Jack (D-RI)
Reid, Harry (D-NV)
Sarbanes, Paul S. (D-MD)
Schumer, Charles E. (D-NY)
Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI)
Wyden, Ron (D-OR)

Intrepid Democrats stood tall for political calculation.

Update:  The vote is in.  Alito is confirmed 58 to 42.  More commentary at JustOneMinute.

Update II:  Power Line sums up the result this way:

The vote changes the "rules" for confirming Supreme Court Justices. Under the Alito rule, Senators will vote against highly qualified nominee for no reason other than that they expect the nominee to rule contrary to their preference on major issues. Under the Alito rule, the president's party, in effect, must control the Senate in order for the president to have top-notch nominees of his choice confirmed. When the the president's party doesn't control the Senate, only compromise nominees acceptable to both parties can expect to be confirmed.

It was objectionable for the Democrats to have changed an understanding of the Senate's "advise and consent" role that has worked reasonably well for 200 years, or so. The new approach will probably produce more mediocre Justices, selected not for their intellect, fairness, or other judging skills...

Emphasis in bold is mine.

Comments

[Giacomo]

Just found your blog via the Carnival of the Clueless, and I'm adding you to my blogroll. Good stuff.

[Tom Bowler]

Thanks, I appreciate it. I'll add you to mine.