Filibuster or Bush: Feinstein Must Stop Alito

Filibuster or Bust: Sen. Feinstein Must Take a Stand for Women’s Rights

Pat Robertson, the founder of the ultra-right Christian Coalition, called the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court a “grand slam home run.” Now the question is, will the Democrats go to bat for women’s rights, or will they swing and miss?

Their batting average with Bush on the mound is not good. The majority of Democratic Senators voted to confirm Chief Justice John Roberts. Now supposedly liberal Democratic Senators like Dianne Feinstein and Joseph Biden are “withholding judgement” on Samuel Alito. Sen. Feinstein spoke on NPR this morning, telling Nina Totenberg, “I don't make up my mind on a nominee until after the hearings... I expect any Bush nominee to be conservative, that's not a problem for me.”

It may not be a problem for Sen. Feinstein, but it is a problem for the vast majority of women, people of color and working people in California.

Let’s be clear, if Samuel Alito is confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice, then it will only be a matter of months before Roe v. Wade is either overturned or entirely gutted by Alito’s swing vote. And that’s not all, people of color’s rights to seek redress in the courts against racist discrimination in school and in the work place, will suffer a sustained assault, as will the workplace rights of all employees, no matter their race, gender or sexual orientation. That is why Pat Robertson is so happy.

If any Senator is well placed to call for and lead a sustained filibuster against Alito, it is Sen. Feinstein. Her voting base overwhelmingly opposes Alito and she is the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

There is little doubt Sen. Feinstein will vote against Alito in the end, but that is like yelling at a horse that’s already left the barn.

There is only one way to stop Alito and protect women’s rights: Sen. Feinstein must draw a line in the sand and publicly call for an open-ended filibuster that makes it plain to the Republican leadership that she will not relent until the withdraw Alito’s name.

If she fails to do that, then her symbolic vote against Justice Alito will be of little comfort to the women who will inevitably begin to die in back allies across our country.

Todd Chretien is a Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in California and can be reached at ToddChretien [at] mac.com or http://www.Todd4Senate.org