Centerfield

According to Redstate, the partisan breakdown was:

Rs: 53-0 (2 not voting)
Ds: 19-24 (1 not voting)
Is: 0-1

To use an overused paraphrase, it largely depends on what the definition of "largely" is. But then, a bipartisan bill, under MSM language, is one supported by all Democrats and 1 Republican.

LOL. Too true. But I couldn't let it go by.

Jeffords voting against, of course.

Yup, if the vote is evidence of anything it is that the Republicans are unified and the Democrats are not. For those who love to compare 2006 to 1994, this wasn't the case then for the party that took back the majority.

Now, as a matter of linguistics, would you classify that as a defeat, or a rout?

Still, on the plus side, it must be comforting for the Jr. Senator from Massachusetts to be back on familiar ground...

I wouldn't quite call it a rout, given that they did manage to hold a majority of Democrats together. The 19 Dems who voted for cloture are a solid list of those who know they do not need to pander to the far left in order to be reelected. They may be good targets for centrist messages.

Give me a break... If Olympia Snowe, Lincoln Chafee, and Susan Collins voting with the Democrats makes a bipartisan coalition, than this was a rout.

But they didn't, Mathew. All Republicans voted for cloture, except for the two who sat out the vote.

Tully - and one of those has a fairly decent excuse since he was in hospital after a car crash.

Yep. And Hagel doesn't surprise me. He and Nelson have been running cover for each other all year. Don't know what was up with Harkin, too busy to pay that much attention today.

Mmm, this cloture vote is insider baseball in the eyes of the GP. Democrats who voted for it simply don't want to fight a battle they don't believe they can win, which IMO has much more to do with strategy thn ideology.

I expect the democrats to show more substantial unity on the final vote(pure guess? 40+), and to lie in wait for a Scalia-wing-led SCOTUS decision that liberals and moderates find unpleasant. That's their best hope for a genuine rallying point.

I'm agnostic on whether that will happen though, for several reasons. One is that I'm not yet convinced that Alito will ultimately rule as conservatively as his most rightist supporters have talked themselves into believing he will. And two, because the dem strategy I'm talking about above requires patience. That means waiting for a conservative scotus ruling that makes liberals plusmoderates and independents mad. Not jumping the gun on a ruling that POs liberals but doesn't seem that unreasonable to many moderates.

This seems to me to be a problem for the more liberal among democrats, whose passion seems to often lead them into wanting to leave the station when the bus isn't full. Having the courage of one's convictions is nice, but understanding political mechanics is the way to fill the bus's tanks and drive to victory.

I think it was the pragmatic vote by the Democrats that voted for Cloture. It was a losing propostion for the Dems in both the short and long run. No matter what, Alito was being confirmed. They vote was more about wanting to blow up the Senate or not. The nuclear option was assured and would pass if Cloture had been denied. Long term damage would hae been immense and would have backfired on many Democrats in the fall. The only ones who could afford to vote nay were the same ones who could go streaking across the Reflecting Pool and still would not be in danger of losing their seat.

What Jim said (since I've said it before myself). I also predict that the final vote will equal or clear 60.

Tully,

I meant in the past...

My prediction is wrong--too many abstainers. 55-38, seven senators MIA.

The other seven have registered their votes, and the final tally is 58-42.

I predicted 62-38 in the predictions thread here. Maybe we need to scour that thread for the wiener.

The prediction thread is here. Actually, my prediction was spot-on. 58-42.

Oberon absolutely SWEEPS the predictions! It was his thread, and in the original post he said:

The filibuster fails 62-38 (causing Dailykos servers to melt down while Democratic politicians secretly sigh in relief), and then Justice Alito is confirmed 58-42.

OK, he was way off on the cloture vote, but he nailed the confirmation vote AND Kos is currently DOA. Dead. Offline. HTTP 404.

Schizophrenia is treatable, you know.... ;-)

Errr...

Try here.

Preview, Submit!
Preview, Submit!

LMAO. I already said I was way off--and note that my prediction later changed downward to follow events.

Sorry, I'll preview, but I never submit! :-)

OK, he was way off on the cloture vote, but he nailed the confirmation vote AND Kos is currently DOA. Dead. Offline. HTTP 404.

Good point. :)

Schizophrenia is treatable, you know.... ;-)

It took all 4 of me to read it. :)

Maybe one of the contributors should do a King/ O'Connor retrospective or tribute thread.

Kos is back up now, but the flood did knock 'em 404 for a bit.

I wonder what floor trades were made in the 45 minutes it took those seven senators to register their votes?

The missing Corzine is now the gov of NJ with Menendez taking his senate seat. Same vote either way.

I wonder what floor trades were made in the 45 minutes it took those seven senators to register their votes?

Forgiveness for the caucus split on cloture, maybe? Were the abstainers red state Dems that voted for cloture?

My bad, WHQ, I used MSNBC as a source and am not completely caffienated yet. They've now CYA-amended their form to replace Corzine's name with Menendez's.

Were the abstainers red state Dems that voted for cloture?

Only Lincoln of Arkansas. The other Dems voted against cloture. But you don't hold off voting that long unless you're dealing.

So pretty much along party lines, 4 dem floppers and 1 GOP flopper. All Rinos and Dinos, right? :-)

Got a real chuckle listening to red-faced Ri republicans calling in to complain about Chaffee. It's really very funny, because Chaffee understands the state he represents pretty well, and votes accordingly. He's loyal to his constituents.

All the calling frothers were mad because Chaffee was being disloyal to his party. Good times.

I will vote for a Congresscritter who is loyal to his constituents (ALL of them) any day, over one who is only loyal to his party.

Damn, I'm good.

Now I've just got make a few phone calls and see who screwed up the cloture vote.

Cylinder, Oberon beat you to it by 6 days. But you still get to share bragging rights. :-)

Oberon, you probably forgot to send your donation checks in with your cloture requests. Howard Dean wants to talk to you about that....

No, no, no, Tully... didn't you get the memo? Buying of Congressmen with campaign contributions is a Republican scandal.

Talk about missing the forest and the trees, do any of you even care about the Justice that just got confirmed?

Do you care about 8th graders being shot in the head for snatching a purse?

Do you believe the mentally retarded should have broomsticks poked up their butts when they're trying to work?

Do you think the legal process is more important than innocent people headed to execution?

Do you think the power of government lies in the Presidency and not the Houses of the People?

Do you think women should have to get permission from their husband's or appear before boards when faced with reproductive issues?

Does the Bible or the Constitution decide whether a woman can use birth control?

The make-up of the court and its view of Federalism and government will influence the country you live in. That was a filibuster about the future, not partisanship or pandering.