Feinstein was present

[Roho]

How can she not vote to filibuster after listening to that speech?

President Gore was speaking directly to the Alito nomination. Did she disagree with parts of what he said or is she a deaf mute with an agenda that can not be altered no matter how persuasive the argument
?

[wakeme2008]

1. Just because her body was there, does not mean her

mind was

[sandnsea]

2. Did anybody actually hear her?

She said they don't have the votes, and they can't find something glaring to base the filibuster on in order to get the moderates of both parties to rally around. I don't think she is going to vote for the nomination at all. As far as I'm concerned, the party picked the wrong stuff. Durbin should have gone ahead and described the sexual harrassment that Alito dismissed, and they should have gone after the mining case too. That CAP group was too obscure, as was the attempt to hang the culture of corruption on him. You need more than one case to do that to a judge of 15 years. The party has to stop sounding like political partisans, and hit the issues with some conviction and sincerity. People have been listening to racism and abortion for 30 years and are tuning it out. We've got to figure out how to reinvigorate those debates and weave it into a larger vision of America.

[autorank]

3. Gore acknowledged her presence. She said nothing.

His indictment of congress was so devastating, she probably crawled out.

She should confess her sins, reform, and lead a life of self-abnegation!

[sandnsea]

5. Previous to that

geez. Over the weekend. Because if somebody isn't referring to her words at some point in time, then they're just playing mindreader.

If every Senator & Congressman who had ever voted some way that the left didn't like had to leave, we wouldn't have anybody in Congress at all. I don't know who chose the strategy at the hearings, but Kennedy is the one who went after CAP and Vanguard. So if it was his idea, then the left blew it, wouldn't you say?

Not that anybody was particularly stellar in the questioning.

[rodeodance]

18. yes, Gore slamed Congress good.

[firefox]

7. It's big picture time. A country is a terrible thing to waste.

Removed because above was edited.

[sandnsea]

9. Okay, now prove it to me

5 decisions that prove that's what he's going to do. I dropped out of high school, have 3 kids, just got home from work, the news is on, I'm cooking dinner and supervising homework.

Alarm Me!!

[firefox]

11. Prove what to you?

I was agreeing with you.

I don't know that I have anything alarming to say about anything. I do not think anything is going to stop Alito's confirmation. I think we should be concerned that so little is made of him on the court and I think that the person that wrote at Huffington Post that he perjured himself gave plenty of cause that he should be rejected.

What I am for now is term limits on the Supreme Court Justices. With 300 million people we do not have a shortage of a labor pool for the job. I am for 12 year terms with only one term. With this Constitutional Amendment I am for term limits on all of Congress, which I believe passed Congress and were declared unconstitutional. I doubt that happens in my lifetime, but I will sound an alarm that it needs to happen.

[sandnsea]

14. I know

I'm challenging you to prove Alito hands down decisions that break the law. Because it's not that easy. And it has to be something simple enough for people to grasp and that will resonate with the majority. He's a conservative isn't enough because at least 40% of the country is conservative and they have just as much right to their view as a liberal has.

I vaguely remember the perjury charge, and unless I missed something, it was nothing more than twisting somebody's words and pretending to catch him in a lie. That isn't perjury.

I think there's a case to be made against Alito. I'm just saying it isn't as easy as some people think it is.

[Roho]

8. easy

After Katrina the only people that think race issues are being tuned out are white. How do you think African Americans feel about their next Justice having belonged to a bigoted, racist group? Same as it ever was?

On Fox news this weekend they had a republican talking head on saying its quite clear sammy would vote to over turn roe. So we have women and minorities getting screwed royally yet nothing stuck out at the hearing.

I think after listening to Gore’s speech he would disagree with Feinstein and you.

Democratic NO votes without a filibuster are ass covering empty gestures.

Civil rights and abortion rights are important but not enough to take any risks based on principle for?

[sandnsea]

10. See #9

Within the context of post #9, get America's attention. Alarm Me!

[Roho]

12. what???

I'm a black women that just watched my family members lose everything while they were stuck on a bridge for 3 days with no water and now I see a racist apologist getting the wink and nod treatment from my representatives.

Do we really only pander to the white upper middle class or white trailer trash? Is that where the party has gone?

Do we just assume that minorities will always vote Democrat?

Did Al Gore Alarm you today? Or are you part of the political elite that doesn't get alarmed therefore you assume that issues don't resonate with others because you are unmoved?

The crying game was desinged to con white people into believing race issues had no place in a "civilized" debate.

[sandnsea]

16. What does Alito have to do with that??

Tie it into Alito, with facts. Because if we can't do that, then we can't filibuster.

As a party, as a people, we've done a horrible job bringing the plight of those in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to the American people, it's a complete failure up and down the line. We have to figure out a way to invigorate the debate on racism and weave it into a vision for America. That's what I said. Whether Alito is a racist or not has nothing to do with Katrina, unless you know of cases that apply. I only heard of one and there needs to be a strong pattern before America will believe it, or one that is so shocking it will break through.

[Roho]

19. someone in another thread called you obtuse

and I'm starting to see why.

Democrats need to lead. Not follow.

I am black and I am alarmed. (27%)
I am a woman and I am alarmed.(49%)

Am I still a minority?

You say invigorate the debate about racism but if you were black, or knew any black people well, you would know that the race issue is boiling right now.

The hearings are set up to avoid any blockbuster revelations. Sammy just had to say he didn't remember belonging to the racist club and keep repeating it. Then his rich white wife turns on the taps and race is mopped up with a hanky and tossed in the trash.

Much like the Katrina victims.

Once the filibuster begins the Democrats will have plenty of time to paint the picture of an administration out of control.

[sandnsea]

20. Go ahead

Paint the damned picture. Because if you can't do it now, you aren't going to be able to do it in the next 5 days. I am not intentionally obtuse, but I absolutely refuse to pretend people have valid arguments when they don't or that launching a filibuster without the support of the majority of the people will work. You get that support BEFORE the filibuster, and right now, we don't have it because we haven't presented compelling facts. Or a vision of an Alito America. It's like creationism or ID, they started making headway because they gathered together some data. They were able to take school boards by storm because nobody was prepared to debate their obscure claims. Now that the scientists are realizing they're serious, they're starting to beat them back with facts.

Do you know about the case of the mentally retarded boy who was sexually harrassed on the job?? That is a compelling case. I don't know the details of the black woman who filed a discrimination case. How can we have gone through a hearing and not have those details made clear?? People want to hear things that relate to them personally, or their vision of America. We have to tell the stories in a way they can relate to. Too many Democrats are still telling the stories of the 70's and we've got to change that before we can get people's attention again. And you bet, Katrina is vital to that, but I don't think it relates to Alito.

[Roho]

21. I've been reading

this site for a while and I'm sure anyone that has knows that the media controlled the message for these hearings.

Forget the crying game for a moment and lets just look at how the media covered the questions.

Every time a Democrat started asking tough questions cnn/fox would cut away. Not to commercials but to rightwing talking heads for their spin.

Add to that Sammy’s own filibuster. Taking 10 minutes to not answer a question eats up valuable time and bores the viewer to death.

How do you expect to get the publics attention stuck in that paradigm?

Once the Democrats "SHUT IT DOWN" no amount of phony tears will take the media's eye off the reasons for the filibuster.

[sandnsea]

22. I'm not talking about the hearings

I'm talking about something that every day Americans can grab on to between work and kids and visiting grandma in her nursing home. Sticking a broomstick up a mentally retarded guys butt would probably be it, but Durbin chose to say "the details are so graphic". That's what I'm talking about. If there's racial cases that are as blatant, let's bring them out too. Kate Michelman was stupendous and we need to be telling her story, over and over and over. Women have forgotten that there were boards you had to appear before to get an abortion. We aren't telling the story of an Alito America, OR a Democratic America. So we've got 5 days to do it. I challenged others to come up with a clear case against the guy, based on facts, that will hit America hard. That's what we need to get the people moving. I don't see it yet and if it doesn't get out there, there won't be a filibuster because there won't be any pubic support for it.

[T Town Jake]

23. Hurling insults because you cannot answer the fair question...

...put to you is not the way it works.

Try again.

[firefox]

4. comment moved

[xchrom]

6. she NEEDED to be present.

i can only guess that she did not know how on fire or controversial{for stating the obvious} gore would be.

now she her attendance hanging out there.

[autorank]

13. She's got some splainin' to do to Ricky!

Wonder what she'll say. I'm sure Gore was queitly amused.

She should look at it the way I did. It was a key moment in our history, we (she and I;) were there, she can tell her whatever...she can tell her self, time to get on the train, it's leaving the station.

Get hip Diane, it's time to talk to some of your SF pals and figure out "the next thing" -- loyalty to the Constitution and service to the people.

[xchrom]

15. i'm with you.

on the alito thing alone -- she's been pretty stalwart when it comes to roe -- and here she said she would not oppose alito -- what kinda sense does that make?

anyway...

[B Calm]

17. She was probably a mole for the Bush Crime Family!

[Toots]

24. She is bought and paid for so don't count on her to aid Democracy

She is the problem and not the cure...

[RBHam]

25. Feinstein does as her neo-con masters tell her.

She was compromised long ago.