You've got to be kidding me.

There is NO way that Dems will risk the amount of political capital it would take to filibuster a SCOTUS nominee. I'll go out on a very sturdy limb here and predict that you're absolutely wrong.

You are allowing your wishful thinking to color your opinion. You only hope that McCain and his 7 dwarfs won't allow the nuclear option. You have forgotten, that for all their faults, Senators can read and watch TV, and read their email. This little intrugue with Harriet Miers has been educational, especially for those up for election this cycle. You are probably right about Senator Snowe, and perhaps Collins and the other female republican, Arlen Specter. But the committee vote will get the issue to the floor, and after that you'll see 64 or 65 votes for confirmation.

If the nuclear option is initiated, our form of a democratic republic which has provided our only minority input for 200 years, is doomed.
Our forefathers, in setting up the Constitution and The Bill of Rights, saw the extreme importance of minority representation.
Majority manhandling of the minority would reduce our country to the lowest form of representation of all the people.
Do not underestimate the importance of minority representation.
Those in power will stay in power forever...amen!!

Given Alito's unquestionable professional qualifications, and the facts that Specter likes him and Lindsey Graham has touted Alito's qualifications as precluding a filibuster, your prediction now seems shaky (granted, it's almost nine hours old). At worst: Collins, Snowe and Chafee vote against the nuclear option (if it were to come to that), with Graham, McCain, DeWine and Warner voting for; that's 52-48 for the rules change. Those four did not vote on pro-choice grounds, but as a way to prevent the Senate from cracking-up on a rule change when the stakes were not high (i.e. a few circuit judges). That basis is not present, with the SCOTUS nominee, and the President will get deference on his nominee from those four.

This dynamic makes it likely that the red-state democrats will prevent the filibuster in the first place. Former leader/Senator Daschle is why this outcome is more likely than your prediction.

As pertaining to the so called "nuclear option" dooming the republic. This option has been used in the past by the ruling party and our form of democratic republic has survived. Tonight it was referenced by a high ranking republican on the news that this has happened in the past and the Senate has survived. Remember that if this Senate rule is changed it will pertain to the Democrats if they take power so they can use it against Republicans also.

It's simple, really—filibustering a Supreme Court nominee, no matter the rationale, is not a winning political move. It is a move of desperation that won't make sense to the American people, and it will make whomever does it look bad, pure and simple.

Frank, you must be one very disappointed citizen if you have had a problem with simple majority democracy all these years. Or is this just until the Democrats are back in the majority?

A comment from DeWine in the Plain Dealer, today, indicates he would vote against the filibuster.

"From everything I know about him, I can't think that anyone would believe that his nomination constitutes 'extraordinary circumstances' that would lead them to filibuster him," DeWine said.

"This is not that type nomination at all. And if a filibuster was attempted, I would certainly oppose that and if it came to that, vote to change the rules of the Senate to stop that type of filibuster."

If two of the seven Republicans hold this position, and I think four certainly will, the filibuster will not work. More importantly, a filibuster will end the careers of red-state Democrats, making it highly unlikely as the Democratic leadership, such as it is, will not attempt the losing strategy.

oh my, can you imagine what FDR would have done had we pulled this type of stunt in the 30s? Probably outlawed the whole party.

I believe this candidate not only will get confirmed, but I also believe there will not be a fillibuster by the Democrats. This guys has alot of background - substantially more than those that are even on the current court. Add in that he has already been confirmed 2x by the senate and I think you will just have alot of smoke blowing but a confirmation in the end. It would be drastically different if this was for one of the liberal or one of the liberal leaning middle ground seats.

No filibuster

No challenges to Alito in committee that he cant or wont be able to squash like a bug

No problem getting this guy confirmed.

to quote blogger and Sacramento Bee reporter Dan Weintraub, who becomes less offensive and more readable with each passing month:

Election Law blogger Rick Hasen predicts that Alito will not be confirmed. He says Democrats will threaten a fillibuster and pro-choice Republicans will balk at breaking it. I disagree. I think the Miers debacle put a premium on qualifications over ideology, and gave Bush the public-opinion opening he needed to appoint another highly qualified if very conservative justice. Most voters will be getting Supreme Court fatigue about now and will say, hey, this guy is smart, experienced and can do the job, and Bush promised when he ran to appoint conservatives, so let him go. Maybe not most voters in my state. But most voters in the country. Barring the disclosure of some unknown skeleton in his closet, he'll be confirmed.

Sooner or later someone will realize that a female's right of "choice" doesn't exist if her mother can kill her before she's born.

Alito's not likely to be the one to make us all wake up to this, any more than the popular choice under the "one child" system (China) of killing unborn females by families that wanted to have a boy.

Wasting political currency on blocking Alito can be compared to spitting in the ocean to raise the water level.

The real engine for stopping the death culture will probably come from someone who realizes that we've brought back owning human beings (otherwise known as slavery).

Don't belive me? Ever watch a teenager put his hands around a girlfriend as if she's his property. We're in a human-owning society. Only when we realize that we are "owned" by our Cre-
ator will this change.

So the Democrats are going to filibuster an imminently qualified 3d Circuit judge, just because he might vote to curtail Roe/Casey? The public will get sick of that fast.

How does one persons religious aspects on this topic make a firm difference and strong arguement? It doesnt. Alito's 20 year old document that came out today is going to be a large difference. Public opinion is going to shift dramatically. Also, with Roberts not saying yes or no as Alito has done to changes in Wade, this is a large personal scare. Two unknowns can shift the entire case. Lastly, with the last of the 14 questioning Alito soon, she will lay the question down and this will be the final say.

78-22 as the sissy - obstruct and find a reason to do so- libs, fail again!

"So the Democrats are going to filibuster an imminently qualified 3d Circuit judge, just because he might vote to curtail Roe/Casey? The public will get sick of that fast."

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I have to disagree with that statement. No matter how much Alito may try to cover up his right wing thendencies during the confirmation hearings he will no doubt be shown as not having anywhere near the easy ride that roberts managed.

Albeit that easy ride was mostly in part due to Roberts ability to calmly deflect questions with the "no comment on anything that comes up in future cases" routine.

Alito's problem is his litany of conservative judgements on cases and the dissents he wrote. This with the fact that he has scored a big own goal by not fessing up to his error of sitting on a Vanguard case while in the Philadelphia High Court.

That in itself has bombed his argument that he can be impartial. If he had said "Yes I made an error" the matter probably would have subsided but the fact he said that the promise he made to recuse himself from any Vanguard cases was "Restrictive" is downright comical.

So you can make all sorts of promises to get a seat and then renege just to suit yourself. Is it just more or isn't that an abuse of power?

My prediction is that the Democrats will try a fillibuster and it will be nuked by the GOP. Now while this will come across like a disaster lets have a look at the long term prospects.

The supreme court will be conservative for about 10-15 years.

The Republican Party is seriously damaged by it's current administration in the White House. It will take a long time to recover from the mess made in Iraq as the US forces will be permanently based there.

This will lead to Democratic Presidents in the next 2 terms. Any radical right wing bills would be overturned usually on the basis of human rights and equal protection and/or breach of church/state seperation.

The right wing conservative base is having its high after it's very well planned intervention in the running of the USA. This will end with the nuclear option because as we evolve this section of the electorate will see it's power wane and they will become a minority group which will no longer be protected by the fillibuster.

In short. Alito's confirmation is more about the GOP using the nuclear option than the democrats fillibustering. If they do (which I hope) use the nuclear option they will be handing the impetus back to the democrats down the line.

Well we are down to the wire and it looks like Alito will be confirmed. By my estimation he will get between 60-65 votes and any attempt at a filibuster will fail. This will ruin Hillary's chance to be elected president. Especially in light of her 16% poll rating of Americans who would definately vote for Hillary.

I did a search for Alito blogs after he received his confirmation today. From my search I was surprised at the low number of blogs against Alito. I this is only one piece of evidence that the majority of the people supported Alito and don't believe he is an extremist.

I think that supreme court nominations will never be the same again, unfortunately. The Democrats have set a bad precedent. In the past even far left liberals were confirmed by Republicans if the justice was qualified. I don't think this will be the case any longer. No more will justices have an easy nomination- no matter what their political leaning.