Letting Alito in

Anyone the least bit liberal would agree that the new Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito, is thoroughly reactionary on just about every issue, from affirmative action to women’s rights to workers’ rights to civil liberties. If the Democratic Party is to keep its image as standing for anything different from the right-wing Repub lican agenda, it has to distance itself from Alito.

But appealing to the progressive sentiments of the masses in order to get elected and actually putting up a fight against the far right are two very different things. All the pro-Democratic Party groups that represent mass movements—the labor movement, the women’s movement, the civil rights movement, and so on—wanted the party to try to block Bush’s nomination of Alito. The Democrats didn’t have a majority to do so in the actual confirmation vote itself. But there is a mechanism by which a minority party in the Senate can stop that body from taking an action: the filibuster.

It takes 60 votes in the Senate to end debate on an issue, called cloture. Unless members of the minority party, in this case the Democrats, cross over and vote with the majority, the debate can continue indefinitely—a filibuster. This tactic was used by the Republicans in 1968 when they were in the minority. Their filibuster forced then-President Lyndon Johnson to withdraw his nomination of Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court.

On Jan. 30, the Bush administration was assured of the Alito nomination when a resolution to close debate passed the Senate by 72-25. Only 24 of the Senate’s 44 Democrats voted against it, along with one independent. Had all 44 Democrats, or even just 40, voted against cloture, the debate would have continued and the nomination would have been stalled.

Just one day later the vote on Alito’s confirmation was held. This time, 40 Democrats voted against him. But it was only a gesture. They all knew the nomination was a sure thing.

The Democrats who had earlier voted for cloture could now go to their constituents and say: “I tried to help you. I voted against Alito.” But they and the wealthy rulers of this country who give money to both parties know that the party had caved in to right-wing pressure when it really counted.