Can Byrd be made to change his mind on Alito? He's contradicting himself

[BurtWorm]

on the basis of his alleged belief in the sacrality of the Constitution. Can he not be made to see the contradiction between his principled stand against Bush's executive power grab in foreign policy and his power grab in the judiciary? How can a Constitutional scholar and historian like Byrd tolerate the installation of a justice who is willing to look the other way when the Executive violates several principles in the Bill of Rights--which it justifies by appealing to the power grab Byrd is on record objecting to?

[Avalux]

1. Maybe he's got a plan.

He's said he'll vote for Alito - but he's also said he has pressing business at home. I think he'll be home visiting coal miner families on Monday and miss the cloture vote. What will the Republicans say about that? Absolutely nothing.

Just sayin'. :D

[BurtWorm]

2. Interesting.

:crazy:

[blm]

3. Frame for Byrd: Will Alito rule FOR mineworkers or FOR mining deregulators

.

[rodeodance]

4. Read yesterday that his office said 90% tell him to vote yes--so he neecs

80,000 Du people to tell him to vote NO>

[BurtWorm]

5. I hope he does miss that vote.

As sparosnare implied he might. ;)

[ThomWV]

6. I'm Going To Call and Ask Him To Support A Fillibuster

for a start and then to reconsider his decision on the vote .... should it come to that.

[Armstead]

7. Byrd is unpredictable -- So anything can happen

I understand his reasoning for this, even though I disagree with it.

Butwho could have predicted he would have gone out the limb foir us regarding Iraq and otehr issues in the lat few years? So maybe he could be persuaded to look at it in view of present reality, intead of just the principles he espoused in his statement.

[vi5]

8. You mean Byrd is not the great liberal saviour he was made to be?

Wow. Shock of all shocks.

Does this mean that all that slobber poured over him when he was the shiny object du jour that everyone was so relentlessly focused on however many months ago was for nought?

If he can be convinced to change his mind then great. But amidst the many lessons we all need to learn from this Alito debacle it's that we need to stop obsessing over white knights who we feel are going to rescue us all and be our heroes (Clarke, Wilson, Byrd, Sheehan, Galloway, etc. etc.) and start DOING a lot earlier and with a lot more big picture focus.

[BurtWorm]

9. I certainly agree with you that there are no white knights

and if there were, Byrd is a problematic candidate to be one, to say the least. His votes on Supreme Court nominees, in particular, display the cracks in his "Great Liberal" facade. And I have no hope that he could have his mind changed even on principle. But as I don't know for a fact that it can't be changed, I ask to see if others have any better information than I.