Filibuster failure

The Democrats' attempt to filibuster Sam Alito's nomination as the next Justice of the Supreme Court failed, 72-25. No Republicans voted against cloture. Here are the Democrats who voted FOR cloture:

Lincoln (AR)
Pryor (AR)
Salazar (CO)
Lieberman (CT)
Carper (DE)
Nelson (FL)
Akaka (HI)
Inouye (HI)
Landrieu (LA)
Baucus (MT)
Nelson (NE)
Bingaman (NM)
Conrad (ND)
Dorgan (ND)
Johnson (SD)
Cantwell (WA)
Byrd (WV)
Rockefeller (WV)
Kohl (WI)

Only Cantwell, Kohl, Lieberman and the two Hawaii Senators come from states that John Kerry carried in 2004 (and Kohl does only thanks to rampant voter fraud in Milwaukee). Rockefeller, Akaka, Inouye, Byrd (in reality) and Lieberman are all safe seats, but all are liberal (except Lieberman who's moderate), therefore they voted their consciences; Cantwell is solid lefty (at least) from a Democrat state, so she gets kudos too (her senior senator, the execrable Patty Murray, voted against cloture). Ben Nelson (Nebraska) is a bit of a DINO (Democrat's equivalent of RINO). The Dakotans are all from staunch Red States and are among the more liberal members of the Senate caucus -- they're voting for their political viability.

You'll notice that no less than four ostensibly "moderate" Democrat senators with potential presidential aspirations are not on the list: Hillary R. Clinton, Russ Feingold, Joe Biden and Evan Bayh. Not a good start for the 2008 field.

The vote that will confirm Alito takes place tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST.