I agree entirely with this post by
Armando a couple days ago:
- Roe is a winning issue for the Democrats politically, and therefore Republican are afraid to air the ideas in a public debate.
- Any judge that is opposed to Roe ought to be filibustered.
What I don't think has gotten nearly enough attention is how we make sure people know what we are fighting for.
[more after the flip]
What happened during the Roberts confirmation and is on the verge of happening during the Alito confirmation battle is that the Democrats spew a bunch of empty platitudes about "qualifications" or "judicial temperment" or "ideas in the judicial mainstream." What the hell does this crap means? If we're going to go to the wall for
Roe (let's face it, he's anti-choice) and filibuster Alito, I see a two ways about it:
Option A:
Use the same approach we used for Roberts, but filibuster at the end. This means that we don't get the debate on Roe that we'd win in the court of public opinion. It also means the Repukes use the Nuclear Option and we get practically nothing out of it. People would just remain confused about judges, and it would make little difference in the '06 elections.
Option B:
Drop the crap about "politicizing the process" and "judicial temperent." Hammer Roe. Bring it up all the time. Say that Judge Alito is not qualified to be on the Court because he's not convinced us of his views on Roe. Not nameless precedents. No garbage about the mythical "judicial mainstream."
With this option, at best you can stop the Nuclear Option by pressuring Chafee, the Mainiacs and hopefully enough other Republicans. The worst case scenario is that the Republicans go nuclear. But if we're loud enough, they will have gone nuclear to overturn Roe and the American people will know this. Bullshit about "strict constructionism" and "judicial restraint" just won't fly. And we'll be able to use it as an issue in '06.
Americans just don't know that the Republican Party is actively trying to overturn Roe and are dangerously close to succeeding. We need to get our Senators out there saying the following things:
- We know Alito is anti-Roe because of a, b and c... memos, court cases, whatever.
- The Democratic Party believes strongly in a woman's right to choose.
- Therefore, the Democratic Party will filibuster Samuel Alito.
It's actually quite simple.