With the stiff partisanship on Capitol Hill, I would have thought the Democrats would at least stall the vote until Wendesday, after the State of the Union address Tuesday night. Instead, now we'll get "positive" presidential words about Alito having just been confirmed.

I'm getting a little weary (actually a whole lot weary) of the criticism of the democrats. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Has everyone noticed that they are in the minority and can barely be excused to go to the bathroom without permission from the Gestapo?

The filibuster may not win, but at least they will be drawing a line in the sand. We've had the arrogance of the Republicans up to the eye balls.

I listened to some of the questions of Alito by the democrats. They were meaningful and adequate.

I wish people would stop cricizing so much, get off their duffs and work for change in 2006.

Martha E. Blackwell

Sunnyvale, CA

" I am swearing off filibuster follies and Alamo analogies." Is that a promise? Your reading of the daily kos sentiments regarding an Alito filibuster was so far off the mark that it wasn't even funny. The person who wrote front page diary after diary there, week in and week out, calling for a filibuster, Armando, might not be happy to see you "cherry picking " the evidence like a good Republican spin artist. Do your homework, please. Read thoroughly, and sample widely. John Kerry actually wrote to dkos members, seeking their opinions on a number of issues, and they told him what they thought, too. They asked him to filibuster. PFAW does not deserve your malignant comments, either, although I give money to them only when I can afford it. The next thing I know, you will be saying that the ACLU doesn't care about our Constitution and only wants to line its pockets. Think how calloused and cynical you sound, Mr. Shapiro. I'll bet you bought into that Republican lie that the confessed felon Jack Abramoff's sins are also Democratic sins, didn't you? Ask Howard Dean about that, and you will get a fight!

When politicians and interest-group leaders know that they are going to lose, they automatically retreat to a can-I-get-anything-out-of-the-wreckage calculus. So moderate senators from red states like South Dakota's Tim Johnson decide that they can buttress their independent credentials with home-state conservatives by supporting Alito, since the outcome would be the same no matter how he voted.

This is PRECISELY what drives grassroots Democrats crazy: politics over principle, with no attempt whatsoever to marry the two, time after time after time. The problem is that a lack of forceful, passionate opposition is what makes Democrats look weak, not the loss itself.

Jesus, I'm a 28 year old Midwesterner and I've got this figured out. What the hell is taking the 6-figure Democratic political "strategists" in DC so frigging long to catch on?

Does anyone in their right mind still believe that Democrats are on their way back to power in '06 or '08 given their anemic, gutless, spineless and YES, VERY self-serving me-me-me micro-strategies? Sadly, I'll bet the decent majority of Salon readers who are Democrats still do.

How screwed do you have to be before you figure out you're screwed? Here’s a clue- we’re all screwed.

The Democrats just gave the GOP one of its greatest victories in modern history. One of their most coveted goals. One that will screw you for at least a decade if you believe the government has a role to play in social justice, protecting a woman’s right to choose, your right to sue a corporation that harms you, a government of checks and balances, education for all, a safe environment, or that the President does not have dictator written into his job description, etc., etc.; and it all went down without so much as a bleep from the cowardly self-obsessed vaporware-party that you can still call the Democratic Party if you want to. But I wouldn’t. They represent no one but themselves.

Get real. This was a BIG historic moment and as ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS, the Dems caved, signed another check to their consultants and headed down to Signatures for a drink with their good friends from across the aisle.

Face it- the Dems represent no one but themselves very well. The GOP is far better at representing corporate interests than the Dems and get most of that money as a result. The Dems have failed to deliver on a single major issue since Lyndon Johnson. They have the worst record of failure of any major political party since the Whigs and yet rank and file believers continue to hope-against-hope that this will somehow turn around if the GOP just screws up one more time. One more time? Can you even count the times anymore?

But the GOP is just so damned corrupt right? Hello? Reality calling; the GOP is regarded (even by the public now) as the most vile and corrupt incarnation of itself in history- more scandals, more criminal investigations, dirty wars, gross incompetence and outright fraud than in any ten administrations combined and the Dems are still fumbling, failing, and making excuses for loss after loss after loss??? America has become at least as corrupt as the old USSR- and is in at least as much denial as they were until they imploded. The Dems are an integral part of that corruption by failing to take a stand. What laughable cowards. If only this were a movie and not my Prozac-soaked country.

Maybe the Democrats are not as incompetent as you think.

Is anyone dumb enough to believe Kerry really gave a shit about stopping Alito? As Shapiro points out in this piece, if he was serious about a filibuster, why the anemic last minute play (ploy)? Why indeed.

Could anyone imagine a business, or a major sports team with a record like this remaining in the game DECADE after DECSADE? The Democrats entire modern history post Roosevelt is a history of miscalculation, stumbles, defeats, lost ground, and even entire elections stolen right out from under them- with nary a whimper.

Howard Dean gave a message to rank and file Democrats in 2003- he basically said the party was ruled by the same interests that run the GOP, and that if we wanted it to change, that change would have to come from the bottom-up. By removing incumbents and starving the central DNC/DLC beast.

Robyn Hitchcock once said, "if you believe in nothing baby, it believes in you". Well the establishments Democrats have shown you what they believe in, and what they are willing to fight for, and it's nothing. Stop believing in them. They don’t believe in you and they haven’t for a long long time.

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