Spin Dry

As Senator John Kerry expresses his desire for a filibuster to block Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, Republicans are hmphing and fumfering about the "Nuclear Option." As pointed out by Atrios over at Eschaton, what this really is, by any other name, is cheating.

Let's put it in poker terms. You're holding three of a kind and two indifferent cards. You bet the pot up and up and up and it finally comes call time. Your opponent has a full house -- which, in the agreed-upon rules of poker, beats three of a kind.

Republican logic at this point is to declare, "No, I change the rules unilaterally. Three of a kind beats a full house."

Yep. Cheating. I hope to hell that Kerry and the other Democratic Senators do their damn job and filibuster Alito into political oblivion.

"Judge Alito's confirmation would be an ideological coup on the Supreme Court," Kerry said in a written statement.

"We can't afford to see the court's swing vote, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, replaced with a far-right ideologue like Samuel Alito."

As simple a statement of fact as you'll read all week...