Dan Akaka (HI)

• 1/26/06: Akaka said today he wouldn't support a filibuster because the Senate has heard Alito's positions in confirmation hearings.

Hey Dan - you didn't like what you heard and you're going to vote against him, but your no vote is meaningless if you vote against the filibuster!

Robert Byrd (WV)

• 1/26/06: Judge Alito told me that he respected the separation of powers and would not rule in support of a power-hungry President. I liked that answer, and I liked Judge Alito. He struck me as a man of his word, and I intend to vote for him.

Joe Biden (DE)

• 1/28/06: Sees "no reasonable prospect that a filibuster could work or function."

Hey Joe - all you have to do is vote against cloture and it will work and function just fine!

Kent Conrad (ND)

• 1/28/06 "I do not think a filibuster will be successful. A filibuster is not going to be sustained... It is clear to me that a majority of the American people and the people I represent support his confirmation."

Hey Kent: the people you represent include North Dakota Democrats, and we don't support his confirmation at all! I doubt many North Dakota Independents do, and I bet many North Dakota Republicans oppose him too.

Mark Pryor (AR)

• 1/28/06 "While I personally cannot support Judge Alito's confirmation on the Supreme Court, there is not a smoking gun in his past that would warrant 'extraordinary circumstances' and subsequently a filibuster against his nomination. I have faith in the 13 other members who forged the 'Gang of 14. In exchange for preserving the minority party's right to filibuster a judge, we all agreed a higher threshold must be met before this action is taken."

Hey Mark - what more "extraordinary circumstance" could there be than a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court? What "higher threshhold" could there be than supporting the un-American and neo-fascist Unitary Executive Theory?

Arlen Specter (R-PA)

• 1/28/06 Bob Novak: Sen. Arlen Specter, an unyielding Republican advocate of abortion rights, last Monday addressed more than 100 anti-abortion protesters from his state of Pennsylvania who had just participated in Washington's 33rd annual March for Life.  To the dismay of pro-life activists, Specter insisted on attending a reception for the marchers at the Capitol Hill Club. Before Specter arrived, he was lavishly praised by Pennsylvania's anti-abortion Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. Specter's performance as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said Santorum, "was wonderful and very, very key to Judge [Samuel] Alito's confirmation" for the Supreme Court. Santorum, facing a tough re-election challenge, was criticized by his conservative base when he supported Specter's renomination in 2004. Pro-lifers at the reception did not object to Santorum's remarks, but several left the room when Specter began to speak. Specter declared he would not be there as a U.S. senator were it not for Santorum.

Footnote: Senate wannabees

These are Democrats running for the Senate who expect Democrats to give them money and votes after they tell us to go fuck ourselves:

Bob Casey (PA) - in a Democratic primary with anti-Alito candidates Chuck Pennachio and Alan Sandals

• 1/24: "I agree with The Philadelphia Inquirer and Washington Post editorial boards that the arguments against Judge Alito do not rise to the level that would require a vote denying him a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court."

Harold Ford (TN)

• 1/27: "It does not appear that there is any reason to hold up a vote. I hope my colleagues in the Senate will move quickly to bring this process to a dignified end," he said.