Help support the filibuster by contacting one of the following Senators over the weekend. Remember, your voice counts.

The Three Democrats Voting For Alito:

Ben Nelson

Phone: (202) 224-6551 / (402) 441-4600

Fax: (202) 228-0012 / (402) 476-8753

Email: http://www.senate.gov/~bennelson/contact/email.cfm

Tim Johnson

Phone: (202) 224-5842 / (605) 226-3440 / (605) 341-3990 / (605) 332-8896

Fax: (202) 228-5765 / (605) 226-2439

Email: http://www.senate.gov/~johnson/emailform.cfm

Robert Byrd

Phone: (202) 224-3954 / (304) 342-5855

Fax: (202) 228-0002 / (304) 343-7144

Email: http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html

Our “Party Leader”:

Harry Reid

Phone: (202) 224-3542 / (702) 388-5020

Fax: (202) 224-7327 / (702) 388-5030

Email: http://reid.senate.gov/email_form.cfm

Democrats Not Confirmed Filibuster-ers:

Barack Obama

Phone: (202) 224-2854 / (312) 886-3506

Fax: (202) 228-4260 / (312) 886-3514

Email: http://obama.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm?cat=legal

Mary Landrieu

Phone: (202) 224-5824 / (504) 589-2427

Fax: (202) 224-9735 / 504) 589-4023

Email: http://landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Ken Salazar

Phone: (202) 224-5852 / (303) 455-7600

Fax: (202) 228-5036 / (303) 455-8851

Email: http://salazar.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Joe Biden

Phone: (202) 224-5042 / (302) 573-6345

Fax: (202) 224-0139 / (302) 573-6351

Email: http://biden.senate.gov/contact/emailjoe.cfm

Byron Dorgan

Phone: (202) 224-2551 / (701) 250-4618

Fax: (202) 224-1193 / (701) 250-4484

Email: senator@dorgan.senate.gov

Diane Feinstein

Phone: (202) 224-3841 / (415) 393-0707

Fax: (202) 228-3954 / (415) 393-0710

Email: http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html

Evan Bayh

Phone: (202) 224-5623 / (317) 554-0750

Fax: (202) 228-1377 / (317) 554-0760

Email: http://bayh.senate.gov/LegForm.htm

Maria Cantwell

Phone: (202) 224-3441 / (206) 220-6400

Fax: (202) 228-0514 / (206) 220-6404

Email: http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

Kent Conrad

Phone: (202) 224-2043 / (701) 258-4648

Fax: (202) 224-7776 / (701) 258-1254

Email: http://conrad.senate.gov/webform.html

Blanche Lincoln

Phone: (202) 224-4843 / (501) 375-2993

Fax: (202) 228-1371 / (501) 375-7064

Email: http://lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html

Mark Pryor

Phone: (202) 224-2353 / (501) 324-6336

Fax: (202) 228-0908 / (501) 324-5320

Email: http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/

Frank Lautenberg

Phone: (202) 224-3224 / (973)-639-8700 / (856) 338-8922

Fax: (202) 228-4054 / (973) 639-8723 / Fax: (856) 338-8936

Email: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/webform.html?Email=Email+Senator+Lautenberg+Your+Comments+on+an+Issue

Bob Menendez

Phone: (202) 224-4744

Fax: (202) 228-2197

Email: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/mail/?id=395&type=CO&state=NJ

Jay Rockefeller

Phone: (202) 224-6472 / (304) 347-5372

Fax: (202) 224-7665 / (304) 347-5371

Email: senator@rockefeller.senate.gov

And Sympathetic Republicans:

Lincoln Chafee

Phone: (202) 224-2921 / (401) 453-5294

Fax: (202) 228-2853 / (401) 453-5085

Email: http://chafee.senate.gov/webform_original.htm

Susan Collins

Phone: (202) 224-2523 / (207) 945-0417

Fax: (202) 224-2693 / (207) 990-4604

Email: http://collins.senate.gov/public/continue.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorCollins.Email&CFID=48722893&CFTOKEN=55709294

Olympia Snowe (The ladies may have a uterus, just not a spine.)

Phone: (202) 224-5344 / (207) 874-0883

Fax: (202) 224-1946 / (207) 874-7631

Email: http://snowe.senate.gov/Webform.htm

And I vote and live in California. I've never really gotten the whole problem with "flip-flopping". I don't respect people who stick to their guns just for the sake of doing so. I would prefer to vote for a person who is willing to take a stand, but is also willing to consider the alternatives to that position. It takes a lot more courage and brains to stand up in public and admit you were wrong than it does to stubbornly stick to your position when you find you are on the wrong side of the argument.

I called Senators Boxer and Feinstein to urge them both to support a filibuster. I then asked why we're even having a public debate about issues such as abortion rights, torture, warrantless spying, equal rights, etc., when it seems our elected officials cannot even muster the political courage to use whatever tools are available to defeat such a radical, monumental appointment as this.

Alito should have been shit-canned long ago, but the Democrats continue to play bean-bag. Why should Alito have been derailed?

Two (2) Reasons:

1. He's a liar. He lied to the Senate the last time he appeared before them. He promised he would recuse himself from certain cases if the Senate confirmed him. They did. He didn't keep his part of the bargain. Where I grew up we called that lying. The Democrats should have pounded him unmercifully for that.

2. His deference to presidential power is pathological. The Framers of the Constitution, having just kicked out a King, were anxious not to create another one, and so they placed with Congress the supreme authority of the people.

Alito virtually invented the totally bogus concept of "presidential commentary", the idea that a dissent by the president, penned as he signs legislation into law, should be given the same deference as "legislative intent" is more than just absurd. The Framers made plain that in legislative matters, Congress rules. Congress can pass a law, the president can veto it. Then Congress may, with a super-majority, override the Presidential veto and compel the President. If the President doesn't like a law and refuses to enforce it, Congress may, at its pleasure, remove the President. The president has no such power over Congress.

Either Alito does not understand this - in which case he's too freaking stupid to be on the Supreme Court, or he DOES understand, and he is so intellectually dishonest that he can argue Presidential findings are equal to legislative intent, all the while knowing it's a lie.

The American people could understand this argument. The Democrats were too stupid or lazy to cogently and compellingly lay it out for the public. Of course, even if they had the major media would have continued to focus on missing teens in Aruba or hijacked cruise ships, while Bush turns back the clock to 1648.

It ain't about the math, Tim; it's about the fact that if this country stands for anything, it stands for NOT HAVING A KING. Supporting a filibuster on Alito's nomination represents the best, highest-profile means available to senators of any (or no) party affiliation of standing up against the massive, illegal, unconstitutional and bloody well unpatriotic unitary executive power grab going on in front of our very eyes. If the White House can ignore laws and deceive the other branches with impunity, the house of cards that is this delicate democracy comes crashing down in a heap - and a Supreme Court nominee who clearly supports that White House's "interpretation" of the power dynamics in American government must not be installed without a fight.

Will the filibuster stop Alito's nomination? Of course not. That's not the point. The point is that in two or five or ten or fifty years, when people ask who stood up against this despotic attempt to pervert everything America represents, the Democratic Party must, if it is worth a damn, be able to stand up proudly and say it did everything it could, even in a losing cause.

As for Feinstein, I'd like to think that my call yesterday, and the calls of dozens of my friends, family and other Californians, played some small part in her sudden spinal transplant - and that, my friend, is no small feat. Let us hope that the better angels of the Democrats' natures succeed in spurring them to be who they should be, who their constituents expect them to be, who their country needs them to be. Onward, friends. We ain't dead yet.