Working

Digby has an absolutely beautiful post up that sums up my feelings on the Alito subject. There is something of a shift in the Democratic side in that they are starting to listen to their constituents. As Digby points out, I'll never forget that moment during the debate over the Iraq War Resolution when Sen. Feinstein said something on the order of "I know my constituents are dead set against this war, but I'm going to vote for the resolution anyway." What is government if its elected representatives don't respond to their constituents? Well, this time, DiFi, who originally said she did not forsee a filibuster and did not expect one, changed her mind after hearing from her voters. That's a major difference.

Read:

So did Bayh, Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Kerry and Reid (voted for the war). The entire leadership of the party. Every one of them went the other way this time. I know that some of you are cynical about these people (and, well, they are politicans, so don't get all Claude Rains about it) but that means something. Every one of those people were running in one way or another in 2002 and they went the other way. The tide is shifting. There is something to be gained by doing the right thing...

I believe that there is finally a recognition that the Party has hit the wall. We have moved as far to the right as we can go and we have been as accomodating as we can be without thoroughly compromising our fundamental principles. Most of us are not "far left" if that means extreme policy positions. Indeed, many of us would have been seen as middle of the road not all that long ago. We are partisans and that's a different thing all together. The leadership is recognising this.

No doubt. And this is not to minimize the real ugly prospect of having this ideologue on the Court. But we've fought through harder battles before, and we'll fight through this one. And many partisan Democrats like myself recognize that the best way to fight is at the ballot box. The country is ready for change. Time to give it to them.

And it starts tomorrow night. I hope Gov. Kaine has his game face on.