Filibuster Now!
At about 4 pm today the Senate is going to vote on cloture. To put it simply, they are going to vote to close debate on approving the appointment of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court.
The Democrats in the Senate need to be encouraged to filibuster Alito’s nomination.
The Constitution is at stake.
No, I don’t believe that I am being overly dramatic.
Alito is a bad choice for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. I did not rush to this conclusion. I held off making a judgment until after I had more information. Everything I read about him began to convince me that Alito will put the final nail into the Constitution’s coffin.
The Constitution has been under attack by right wing ideologues for some time now. People who are convinced that they and only they know what is best for the United States. They know how we should worship and how we should live. They know who we should tolerate and who we should hate.
At one point the Republicans were the party of small government that was not sticking its nose into people’s private lives. That party has since been hijacked by the ideologues and government is bigger than ever. There are also more and more attempts to regulate what we can and can’t do in private.
Alito’s appointment will tip the Supreme Court dangerously over towards these ideologues. This won’t go away in a few years. This will last for decades.
Bush wants a unitary executive presidency. A presidency that is answerable to no one. He’s already used the theory of the unitary executive to justify wiretapping U.S. citizens, secret prisons, imprisoning U.S. citizens without trial, and torture.
When Bush signed the McCain bill outlawing torture he issued a presidential signing statement that said his administration would interpret the law “in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power.”
The unitary executive branch does not clarify that there is only one president as one person claimed on a Sunday news show last week. I honestly doubt that in over 200 years the idea of there being only one president has ever been called into question.
No, the unitary executive branch means that the president can ignore the laws passed by Congress. The president has sole control and the checks and balances established by the Constitution mean nothing.
Time and time again, Alito has shown that he supports government and business over civil rights. Time and time again, Alito has been on the dissenting side of a ruling.
Alito supports the idea of a unitary executive branch. The idea that the presidency has no one to answer to but itself proves this.
The Bush administration already feels that it is above the law. It shows this in every action it takes. It stamps paid to this notion when it suggests that everything it does is a matter of national security and that only the administration should investigate its actions.
Standing up and saying NO to cloture is not easy. Democrats, however, have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Democrats who vote for cloture will be seen as weak. In my opinion, that vision of those Democrats is accurate.
Those who vote against cloture will be portrayed by Republicans as obstructionists. They will be wrong, though. Senators who stand up say no to cloture will be standing on the strongest principle this country has. The principle that the country is only as strong as its Constitution and that the sanctity of the Constitution must be protected at all costs. These Senators will be seen has having finally grown a spine.
As Abraham Lincoln once said,
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
Starting at 9:00 am Eastern Time start calling your Senators at 1-888-355-3588. If you know that one of your Senators will vote for cloture and nothing you or anyone else will say will change their mind (Mel Martinez is one), don’t waste your time. Call the one that will be more willing to listen (Bill Nelson is mine).
If you live in Alabama, don’t call Florida’s Senator(s) and vice versa. They won’t be interested in what you have to say.
The same rule applies to faxes. Only send them to your senators.
You can start faxing your Senator now. I faxed mine yesterday. I was able to send a free, one page fax using Fax It Nice just by registering with them. A small price to pay.
I took Yellow Canary’s fax up at Daily Kos and adjusted it to fit Bill Nelson. Here’s what I wrote:
Dear Senator Nelson:
Judge Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court must be rejected. He respects neither our Constitution, nor the Congress, nor the rule of law.
Judge Alito will expand Presidential power beyond what is appropriate or constitutional. He has already helped forge the strategy of Presidential ’signing statements’ as a way of allowing the President to ignore laws he does not like. It is clear that Alito will permit Presidential lawbreaking such as the illegal warrantless NSA eavesdropping, through the use of perverse legal arguments and novel sophistry. Such a mind has no place on the Supreme Court.
He will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. A glance at past statements makes this clear. He feels an animosity towards women’s sovereignty.
He has lied under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee (previously, about committing to recuse himself from Vanguard cases; and now, obviously, about the Concerned Alumni of Princeton). Lying to the Senate should alone disqualify him from consideration to any Judgeship.
And, not least, he belonged to an organization committed to keeping blacks and women out of Princeton, and bragged about this as recently as 1985.
We cannot accept this nominee on the Court. I need not remind you that the Supreme Court is the last court of resort for the individual citizens of our United States. It is the keystone of our national fairness. Judge Alito is actively unfair, as his record shows. He can damage a great many lives. I implore you to reject his nomination to the Supreme Court, even if it involves invoking the filibuster. Senators — Democrats and Republicans alike — need to stand up for principle — and to be SEEN by the whole country as standing up for principle. Our way of life — whereby ALL citizens are ruled by laws — is worth it.
I know that you are up for re-election this year. I implore you to stand strong on this issue. Allowing Alito to become a Supreme Court judge without any objections would be a sign of weakness. A signal to other democrats and independents in Florida that the republicans are right when they say that democrats are weak and don’t stand for anything.
Please take a stand on this issue and vote against cloture and against Alito.
Sincerely,
Myreal name
Orlando, Florida
Feel free to copy mine and make any adjustments you need. I don’t care as long as you fax your senator as soon as possible.
If you’re lucky and have a democrat for your House Representative (I don’t), call, email, or fax him/her and ask them to speak to your senator.
