Nuclear Option May Be Triggered on Alito--Updated!I'm going by
a liberal blog, which is always risky, but John Kerry is supposedly trying to lead a filibuster of the Samuel Alito nomination.
In other news on the Alito front,
Senators Robert Byrd and Tim Johnson announced they will vote in favor of confirmation. When added to Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who is voting for the nominee, and Mary Landrieu and Ken Salazar, who have not announced but have ruled out filibuster, it becomes apparent that the only way Kerry will get to "lead" a filibuster is if one of the Republicans caves.
Update: Bob Casey, a pro-choice Democrat from Pennsylvania who is challenging for Rick Santorum's seat,
announced that if he were a senator today, he would vote for Alito. Predictably this is causing much gnashing of teeth among the
liberal blogs.
And it
turns out that Kerry's leading the filibuster against Alito from... Davos, Switzerland! Jimmy Stewart would be very disappointed.