Washington – A Democratic attempt to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito ended in failure Monday, with almost half the Senate’s Democrats voting against it – an outcome that cleared the way for Alito’s confirmation to a seat on the Supreme Court today.
Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy launched the filibuster drive last week in what they described as a last-ditch effort to halt the confirmation of Alito, a federal appeals-court judge who liberals have charged is a conservative ideologue who will shift the Supreme Court to the right.
The Senate voted 72-25 to end debate on the nomination. Those who pushed for the filibuster, which appeared doomed from the start, described it as a stand on principle.
“Trying everything in our power to stop an ideological coup on the Supreme Court was the right thing to do,” Kerry said afterward. “We knew we faced steep odds, but we also knew that once Judge Alito becomes Justice Alito, there’s no turning back the Senate confirmation vote.”
Democratic senators who united last year to protect the right to filibuster – members of the bipartisan “Gang of 14” – had opted Monday not to use that tool to block a vote on Alito’s confirmation.
Every member of the group, including Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, voted to end debate and let the confirmation vote proceed.
Nine of the gang’s members who met Monday before the vote to end debate said that they did not see the extraordinary circumstances necessary for a filibuster under the group’s agreement.
“At the end of the day, it’s a decision that has to be made on the totality of circumstances,” Salazar said. “I don’t see the totality of circumstances here rising to that level of triggering a filibuster.”
Salazar, a Democrat, has said he plans to vote against Alito’s confirmation.
Salazar said he prefers not to use filibusters but said he also believed it was wrong for Republican leaders to threaten to eliminate the filibuster, as they did last year before the Gang of 14 united.
Asked why the group protected the filibuster only to not use it, Salazar said there could be another Supreme Court nominee from President Bush “in the next six to eight months.”
The filibuster effort split the Senate’s 44 Democrats, 19 of whom voted to end debate. Some of the filibuster opponents – including Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Bill Nelson of Florida – are Democrats seeking re-election this year in states that are either Republican-dominated or closely divided between the two parties.
Also, several Democrats who supported the filibuster, notably Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., did so with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm.
Favoring the filibuster were several Democrats believed to be considering a presidential run in 2008: Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Kerry, the party’s 2004 nominee.
Despite the split over the filibuster, Democrats largely are united in their opposition to Alito’s confirmation. Only four Democrats – Nelson, Byrd, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Kent Conrad of North Dakota – have announced their support for him.
Senate aides said they expect 41 senators – including one Republican, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island – to vote against him, making his confirmation vote, expected this morning, the closest since 48 senators voted against Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation in 1991.
Denver Post staff writer Anne Mulkern contributed to this report.
