General
DeWine on board: No Filibuster for Alito
Credit to Mike DeWine for denying the Democrats any political cover for a filibuster. Hugh Hewit interviewed him yesterday and CQ posted a portion of the transcript:
MD: Oh, I absolutely do. I mean, this is not under what our
definition of extraordinary circumstances is. This is a nomination
that’s clearly within the mainstream of conservative judges. This is
someone who has a long, distinguished record, someone who I would
classify as kind of a classic conservative justice, who believes you
should decide each case one at a time, you should not be a judicial
activist, you should not be intrusive, that a judge should kind of sit
back, wait for that case to come, and then make a decision on the case,
but not be really a legislator. And really, that’s what this judge’s
record would, at least seem to me, to show.HH: So absent any extraordinary revelation, is it fair to say,
Senator DeWine, that if the Constitutional option has to be deployed,
that you will vote for it?MD: Oh, I certainly would. I would think, though, that this will not
be necessary. I just…it’s hard for me to envision why anyone would
think that you would have to filibuster in this case, or why they would
think it would be, as we defined it in our group of 14, that Lindsey
and I were a part of, why we would define it as extraordinary
circumstances.
Followed by the usual CQ political analysis.
Again, if most of the Democrats remain rational, they will make lots of
noise but fail to fulfill a filibuster. In the end, they will have to
take Alito and bitterly rue their decision to abandon Miers when they
could have supported her and kept her nomination alive. They made the
choice — especially Patrick Leahy and Chuck Schumer — to publicly
ridicule Miers and her answers to the Judiciary Committee after Reid
personally suggested Miers to Bush. They helped set the table for
Alito, and now they should consider themselves fortunate not to have to
square off against Janice Rogers Brown.
Meanwhile the Dem base are drawing lines in the sand.
This is my line in the sand. This far and no further. Either they grow a spine and filibuster Alito, or that’s it, I refuse to ever vote Democratic again. Even if I have to file a completely blank ballot to keep that vow, I will refuse to vote for another Democratic candidate ever again.
This far and no further. Fight or die. That’s all there is to this nomination.
I would rather have them fight now and get nuked than for them to not fight at all.
My guess is that there is certainly going to be an attempt at a filibuster. But DeWine, Graham are key members of the gang of 14 and they both need to protect their right flank. They’re not going to be a part of it.
The most likely scenario at this point seems to be a busted filibuster attempt where Democrats filibuster for a while but fold just before the nuclear option is attempted. This is just going to end up making them look weak and petty.
Discussion
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[...] DeWine says, “This is a nomination that’s clearly within the mainstream of conservative judges. This is someone who has a long, distinguished record, someone who I would classify as kind of a classic conservative justice, who believes you should decide each case one at a time, you should not be a judicial activist, you should not be intrusive, that a judge should kind of sit back, wait for that case to come, and then make a decision on the case, but not be really a legislator. And really, that’s what this judge’s record would, at least seem to me, to show…. [I]t’s hard for me to envision why anyone would think that you would have to filibuster in this case, or why they would think it would be, as we defined it in our group of 14, that Lindsey and I were a part of, why we would define it as extraordinary circumstances.” [...]