The Democrats made a deal: we'll let you have Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor---three of the nastiest, most right-wing judges ever to be elevated to the US Courts of Appeal---in exchange for a promise that, in extraordinary circumstances, you won't pull the nuclear option if we choose to filibuster.

Now we have a nominee who is every bit as right-wing as Clarence Thomas and Anton Scalia, appointed to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's seat---the acknowledged swing-vote on the highest court in the land. Alito's presence will undoubtedly shift the Court farther to the right than it has been in recent memory, and will almost certainly mean the repeal of Roe v Wade, fewer protections for workers, consumers, and the environment, a further weakening of Congress in relation to the Presidency, an evisceration of the Bill of Rights, and so on. If this isn't an extraordinary circumstance, what is?

To my mind, the Democrats HAVE to call the Republicans' bluff, and filibuster this nominee, whose views are so far outside the mainstream as to be a joke, were the prospect of his sitting on the Supreme Court not so repugnant. If they don't use the filibuster now, when would they use it? Their passivity would be construed by all sides as an admission of impotence in the face of the Republicans' bullying. And if that's the case, they'll never again get money from me, nor, I venture to say, most other liberals and progressives.

As one of your readers so astutely pointed out, if you've got nothing to lose anyway, now's the perfect time to draw the line in the sand. If Bill Frist & Co. choose to live by the sword, one day, i.e., after the Senate inevitably changes hands, they will die by the sword.

Democrats will never win battles against the Republicans if they continue to act as though they are a bunch of individuals who just happen to be grouped under a single heading, with no need to act in unison. The fact is, even when the Democrats had the majority in the Senate, they couldn't stop such obvious right-wing ideologues as Clarence Thomas and Anton Scalia, because some of their members broke rank, while Republicans held together.

Much as we may despise and/or fear them, Republicans take their party affiliation seriously, behaving more like a parliamentary party, where Yes or No votes on important issues are expected of all members, or else. When they go into a confirmation battle, it's as if they're going to war: the only way to win is to pull out all the stops, and work together.

Until Democrats learn to take their party affiliation as seriously as their opposition does, it's going to be like watching the NFL versus your local high school football team, over and over. And as they lose their contests against the Republicans, so, too, will they lose support amongst those of us who have stayed with them over the years, hoping against hope that the party will finally learn how to fight.

My wife and I have been loyal Democrats for 40 years; but we are at our rope's end. Give us a new party that represents liberal and progressive points of view, and behaves as though it is determined to win, rather than just compete, and we are ready to bid the Dems adieu.

Re Senator Allen's comment: what I thought of when I first read about it was "kaka," which no one else seems to have picked up on.

Now we all know that the Republican Senator from Virginia would NEVER be so nasty as to call anyone Mr Kaka, not even someone from the "Democrat" Party. So why would I even think that?

Gary Kamiya may think that all SF Giants fans are still pulling for Barry Bonds. But I would beg to differ with him, and his rationalizations.

I've been a Giants fan since Willie Mays was a rookie, and Coogan's Bluff his stage. I followed the "Gints" out from the East Coast to the Bay Area in '64, and have remained loyal ever since. But you can be a loyal Giants fan and at the same time deplore what Bonds has done, and what he stands for, with his attitude, his drugs, and his lies. What a role model he is for our kids, Gary. I'd be ashamed to bring mine to watch him play.

Hopefully Barry Bond's retirement will come sooner, rather than later. The Giants and Major League Baseball will be far better off without him.

It's no mystery to this observer why Republicans hate Hillary. None other than Bill Clinton, himself, was spot on when asked, not long after he left office, why Republicans hated him as much as they did. His answer: "Because I won, not once but twice." For that reason, the Right Wing Noise Machine did its best to demonize everything thing about him, including his wife.

How dare the Clintons live in the White House, and get all that power and publicity, when everyone knows that only the Republicans belong in that position!

Don't kid yourself. If Obama or Edwards or any other Democrat gets the nomination, they'll be subjected to the very same treatment that Al Gore and John Kerry received; and god help them if they win the general election. They, too, will become the target of every smear the Republicans can drudge up. And it goes without saying that the mainstream media will go along for the ride.