Duty to Filibuster?

Because I would never subject my readers to certain things, I occasionally do the dirty work for you. Tonight much like the annoying "Bud Light Daredevil", I delved where no sane conservative would go. I read an article from "The Nation", and I'll probably need two showers afterwards.

I saw the headline for "Checks, Balances and the Duty to Filibuster" on Yahoo! News, and decided I would actually go to the source for the info on this new "duty" of Senators.

So I read John Nichols article, and got an a pretty good laugh from it. Mr. Nichols evidently believed when he wrote this piece that no one would look up his esteemed source, George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley.

With quotes like this from Mr. Turley one would think we should all be concerned about the confirmation of Judge Alito.

"In my years as an academic and a litigator, I have rarely seen the equal of Alito's bias in favor of the government. To put it bluntly, when it comes to reviewing government abuse, Samuel Alito is an empty robe."

These woul be pretty serious words from a constitutional scholar, if he were one who didn't have an agenda of his own.

Let's look at the titles of some of the articles off of Mr. Turley's website:

11/24/04 Hook or Crook in Washington; GOP's gutting of ethics rule should be no surprise.

11/15/04 Ashcroft kicks screen door

10/20/04 6 degrees of Karl Rove;Look close and you will find a Rove connection to everything from the rise of rickets in Arkansas to distemper among Labradors .

Maybe next time John Nichol's writes an article claiming that esteemed scholars are complaining, he'll find one without a 5 year record of being against "anything Bush". He honestly could have been just as objective by quoting Dick Durbin (D-Il), who before becoming a senator was a very good law professor in his own right.

Of course, Turley wasn't the only laugh in article. Nichol's provides a few with his own quotes.

Samuel Alito has established himself, through his record as an appellate court judge and his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, as the consumate judicial activist. He seeks a place on the Supreme Court in order to advance his vision of an imperial presidency that does not obey the laws of the land or answer to the Congress

Evidently we watched different confirmation hearings. The hearing I saw Alito said, on numerous occasions, that no one is above the law, even the president. He also reiterated that congress needs to exert itself if they feel the president is acting out of order.

I would suggest Mr. Nichols go seek the advice of Ed Rendell, former head of the Democratic National Committee. Ed, who's wife sits on the 3rd circuit court with Justice Alito, had a lot to say about this issue. The bottom line was that Alito should be confirmed. (NRO has the transcript here).

In fact, I think that Ted Kennedy and John Kerry should probably go talk to their old party boss, too.

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