Bad Idea

Yesterday, Senator John Kerry announced he would lead a filibuster of Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination.

I'm against this. Here's why:

First, I'm against Samuel Alito, and I would vote against him if I had the chance. I think he will try to take the laws of our nation too far to the right. But, that being said, he will be confirmed anyhow.

Tim Johnson is voting for him. Ben Nelson is voting for him. Robert Byrd (!) is voting for him. If we can't keep our entire caucus all on one side, there's no way we can do a filibuster. This filibuster will just hold up the Senate, will make the Democrats appear out of the mainstream (especially since at least three will be voting for him), and will hurt us in the 2006 election. I strongly supported Senator Kerry in 2004 (and he would probably be in my top 7 or so for 2008), but I don't support him on this. In doing this, he will gain support among far-left liberals who were pretty lackluster about him last time around, but he may alienate moderates, and will definitly lose much chance of getting crossover GOP votes in a future national race.

That being said, let's just get it over with and vote on him. We can take comfort in knowing that Antonin Scalia, who will be 70 this year, will likely retire during the next few years, and we can't do worse than him (especially if we can get a Democrat into the White House in 2008)!

(Note: I have no reason for using the above picture other than I thought it was nifty...)

-Neal

(P.S.-Please pray for us--we've had another death in the family. My Dad's sister (my aunt) went home to Heaven this morning at 6 am. Sometimes life seems harsh)