Batfink's Beep -- 1-31-06

The best possible result

January 31, 2006

Well, it's over. Alito was confirmed by the Senate. And fortunately, he got less than 60 votes, as I had hoped. I wasn't entirely sure it would go that way.

Fortunately?

Yes. You see, it means that it could be argued by the KOS and Democratic Underground types (if not by reasonable folks) that had Dem discipline held, they probably could have mounted an effective filibuster. The reason it's good is, of course, the effect that this fact will have on the left side of the blogosphere.

The extremely poor result of Jean-Francois Kerry's CYA move, which only got half or so of the Democrats, was already working its magic before the vote, with outraged moonbats vowing to target all those Democrats that didn't vote against cloture. I won't bury you in examples here; what follows is actually a relatively mild sample of what has been getting posted to the Kos site lately:

The Democratic Party constantly pays lip-service to its core constituencies while caving to the Religious Right and corporate donors. Symbolic votes by some Democrats against Alito are not enough. The party as an institution has an inescapable patriotic duty to do everything in its power to block dishonest and dangerous extremists like Alito from the US Supreme Court.

How many times will the Democratic Party betray me as a gay man, an atheist, a liberal, and an American? How many times will so many Democrats kick me in the teeth and then expect me to say "thank you" and write them checks? Do you really think I want a penny of my money to go to supporting people like Robert Byrd who embraced many of the KKK's core values (e.g. racism, sexism, homophobia, and Christian supremacy) by voting to confirm Alito?

Whew. Them's fighting words, I'd say.

It had been noted on the right side blogs, back when it looked like more realistic Dems in the Senate would prevent the spectacle of an embarrassing filibuster attempt, that if Alito didn't garner 60 votes, it would outrage the lefty moonbats on the grounds stated above. They aren't known for their restraint, and are also particularly known for their willingness to go after their own, hammer and tong, whenever there is some show of heresy. Take, for example, the promises several weeks back, that Hillary (Hillary!) would face a challenge from the left for her war 'support'. They are nothing if not ideologically pure, and there sure as hell isn't going to be any talking sense, or even practical necessities, to them.

I suspect that it was the prospect of this result, and the Dem blood that would inevitably be spilled, that caused the New York Times to push the panic button with its editorial calling for a filibuster. It sounded too good to be true to this reader, who thought it wouldn't go anywhere, but sure enough, the once-and-future failed presidential candidate, who who fancies himself a cunning man, took the desperate and ill-considered bait. My guess is that even he wasn't chump enough to think it would actually work; but he must have figured, that since Alito was already a sure thing in the open Senate, with more than 50 promised votes, at least going through the motions of a filibuster would prevent the moonbat blogs from eating their own over it. "We tried everything," he could say, and surely will.

As I said, he fancies himself cunning. What he actually got for his effort is an extra event for moonbat central to get ugly about: As I noted, the above quote and an enormous number of calls for the political heads of the dozen or so Democrat Senators who voted against cloture, preceded the actual final vote. We also had the pleasure of seeing Teddy Kennedy, who surely nobody would mistake for a cunning man, red-faced with rage as he ranted in support of his Massachussetts protege's cause, which display will surely cement the GOP line going into the election season that the opposition has completely flipped its lid. Expect to see THAT film in commercials not purchased by Democrats.

The icing on the cake of all this free shrieking and ammunition is that in the end, the final result was the same: They still kept Alito under the mark where their idiot followers will see the lack of an effective filibuster (which surely could have worked, they'll say) as a lack of fighting spirit. And when your people are as unhinged and livid as those folks, you pretty much know they're not going to just let it go.

GWB continues to be most blessed in his choice of enemies.

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