Like a couple of bad comedians who remain clueless about their timing, the Senators from Massachussetts teamed together to call for a filibuster even while two more Democrats announced their support for Samuel Alito, one of whom scolded the senior member of the comedy team for conducting an "outrage and a disgrace" in the Judiciary Committee hearings:

Leading Democrat Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy said they would try to block Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito by preventing a vote on him with a filibuster.

Former presidential candidate Kerry announced from Switzerland that he wanted to block President George W. Bush's conservative nominee with the stalling tactic to prevent "an ideological coup" on the high court.

"Judge Alito will take America backward, especially when it comes to civil rights and discrimination laws," Kerry said is a statement.

Kennedy, Kerry's fellow Massachusetts senator, also called for a filibuster on Alito when the Senate is called to vote, probably early next week.

"We owe it to future generations of Americans to oppose this nomination. If Judge Alito is confirmed ... the progress of half a century on the basic rights of all Americans is likely to be rolled back."

We can speculate where Kennedy may have been when he made this statement; perhaps he went for one last night at the Owl Club, a males-only organization to which he's contributed a C-note a month for the last 40+ years, or perhaps at the family compound in the oh-so-inclusive retreat of Martha's Vineyard. We don't need to speculate with Kerry, who was so enthusiastic about fighting Alito's confirmation that he dialed in his filibuster plea from Davos, Switzerland -- where Eason Jordan spent last January slandering American troops. (Apparently, Davos is the place to go when issuing character assassinations.)

Unfortunately for both of the Massachussetts Senators, the numbers game has already played itself out. Three Democrats now plan to vote for confirmation -- Robert Byrd, Bob Nelson, and Tim Johnson -- while at least two of their caucus have already warned against attempting to block the vote (Mary Landrieu and Dianne Feinstein). Even with Jeffords on board for a filibuster, that leaves only 40 Democrats, and it takes 41 to keep debate open on the Senate floor.

Did Kerry or Kennedy take math in college? Or did they just have someone else take the tests for them?

People expect hyperventilation and bloviation from Kennedy, which winds up rather Shakespearian in its effect -- full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, because Kennedy has no real influence and no more higher ambitions than simply clinging to his Senate sinecure until his last breath. Kerry, on the other hand, still suffers from delusions of being the front-runner for the 2008 presidential race. Does he think that maligning Alito's character and issuing a call for a filibuster while hanging out on the Swiss slopes, thousands of miles away from the fight, makes him look presidential? Or does it just make him look like the accidentally wealthy dilettante that he has become?

The two should take this act out on the road. It would be sure to get laughs from everyone who understands that they're serious.

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…. while in Switzerland (let’s hope he wasn’t skiing!). Via the NYT: Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts could not attend the Senate debate on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Thursday. He was in Davos, ... [Read More]

Tracked on January 27, 2006 8:49 AM