Filibustering

John Kerry has announced today that he will lead a filibuster of Samuel Alito's nomination.

I mentioned, during the John Roberts hearings, that though I disagreed with his politics, I was more than impressed with his answers, and his obvious mastery of constitutional politics.  I did not feel the same about Alito.  I found him to be evasive, running most often from himself, self-deprecating to a fault ("I'm no expert on antitrust law"), and none of that even mentions that I oppose his politics.

But I'm not sure a filibuster is a great idea.  This seems to be an action outside of any public desire.  It will, very likely, fail (I'm not sure it will even pass cloture), and it's failure will be bad for the headway that Democrats have made in the past year.

For John Kerry, however, it seems to be an "all-in" gamble.  It is fairly apparent that Kerry fancies himself a political resurrection in 2008.  Leading the filibuster that stops a weakened president's nominee would reestablish his image as a party leader.

But failure, to me, reaffirms to the public at large that he is no longer affective, and losing that image hog-ties itself to his presidential aspirations.

In order for Kerry to survive this, he has to make salient, legitimate points that opposing Alito is the correct choice, not for Democrats, but for America.  He'll need great speechwriters (better than he had in the campaign), and he'll need to throw fire that will end up on the evening news and stick in the public mind.  We're talking "thousand points of light", "you're no Jack Kennedy" territory here.

This seems, on its surface, to be a near impossible battle.

Comments

[Ty]

Hmm...wonder why candidates don't hire the West Wing writers as their speech writers...(I am assuming they don't because I haven't heard a speech good enough to be on that show in ages...)What a brilliant move that would be for a presidential candidate...

[jo-fo]

I have to agree, Dylan. Kerry's speeches often seemed to wander off-point or use political jargon that average people just don't get. I also didn't see any fire or conviction from him. It almost appeared as if he believed none of what he said.

And while Kerry in 2008 would be better than any Conservative Republican that I could think of, I hope that he does not get the party's nomination for the Democratic ticket. His lack of Kennedyesque charisma will mean another four years of NeoCon "leadership".

[he who is known as sefton]

okay, let's say you'd like to learn about an actual political campaign to impeach the president ...

ah, none of this noise about a yearning for somebody to go do it ...

in addition, you'd like to learn about a game plan to snag Osama ...

if all the above meets with your approval, then click, somehow, on the following hyperlink:

http://hewhoisknownassefton.blogspot.com/2006/01/osama-and-our-president-dumass-botch_20.html

and get ready for a ride on a wild blog

toodles
.......\
.he who is known as sefton

oh, yes, the above was copied and then pasted by an actual human being, who visited your "Something Requisitely ... " blog.

oh, one more thing, keep an eye on Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District ... I'm trying to base my campaign on the three planks I nailed together in my platform ... "impeach bush" is the first plank ... the second is "impeach bush" ... and the third is like the second, "impeach bush".