Chafee says 'no' to Alito, 'no' to filibuster

While it is admirable that at least (although probably only one) Republican senator has bucked the party line, lockstep support of Alito, without regard to his extremist views, there still is not enough courage even within the Democratic Party to block the nominee. There is no valid interpretation of the Consitution that makes the Senate a rubber-stamp of the President's nominees. Indeed, many of the same Republicans that attack Democrats for even thinking about a 'no' vote, let alone supporting a filibuster, were quick to attack and try to delay approval of President Clinton's nominees. They were quite willing and even eager to block the nominees on even more political grounds than they claim were the reason for opposition to Alito. They assume people are lazy and stupid. How else could Sen. Brownback (R-KS), a member of the judiciary committee, claim on Hardball that the theory of a unitary executive just means that there can only be one president at a time without any challenge to his statement. Alito supports the 'unitary executive', a theory that the executive branch can operate largely free from any checks by the other two branches. It is a legal theory that the Bush administration has used to legitimize torture, domestic spying, war on false pretenses, and probably a few other things we don't even know about yet. That is why the 'unitary executive' theory is so dangerous and why all the stops should be pulled to block Alito.