They tried, and tried, but the duo of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry could not successfully muster a filibuster against Samuel Alito. Kennedy's blustering, hysterical remarks on the Senate floor almost betrayed a possible pre-speech nip taking binge. Kennedy tried to create an encore to his dramatic speech on the Senate floor, given just hours after President Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the SCOTUS, but instead displayed for all to see, that the people of Massachusetts would best be served if he would simply retire and fade away.
Lincoln Chafee - the pseudo Democrat - announced he would vote against Alito, but thankfully voted for cloture. Clearly, Chafee has concluded (probably rightly) that open support for Alito can do him no great good, but his decision does hurt the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Why would I send money to the NRSC, if I suspect that such funds might be used to help Chafee, who proudly declared that he had voted against the reelection of George W. Bush, and now does this? I'll stick to contributing to individual members, thank you.
The gang of 14 sealed the defeat of any potential filibuster, with sufficient members of it rightly concluding that denying the outstanding Alito a fair vote would be an affront to the American sense of fair play. Kennedy and Kerry, the reversible Dianne Feinstein, and those others who voted to support a filibuster of Alito, clearly do not have a belief in that concept, and so rightfully alienate themselves from fair minded Americans.
Samuel Alito will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, and his ascension to that body is not only a gift to it, but to all Americans who possess a desire to see undeniably competent, and yes - fair and open minded jurists who decide cases coming before them on their own merits, utilizing a consistent judicial philosophy - as members of the nation's highest court.
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Confirmed 58-42 and sworn in.
The final roll call.
