Challenge to Democrats: 'NY Times' Calls for Filibuster on Alito

[Newsjock]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001918870

Although it has opposed the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme (Court), it was by no means certain the The New York Times would take the strong step it announced on its editorial page on Friday: (they mean Thursday, it seems) challenging the Democrats to launch a filbuster on the matter when a vote nears next week.

"A filibuster is a radical tool," the editorial admitted. "It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court."

The Times said that Alito's entire history "suggests that he holds extreme views about the expansive powers of the presidency and the limited role of Congress... His elevation will come courtesy of a president whose grandiose vision of his own powers threatens to undermine the nation's basic philosophy of government — and a Senate that seems eager to cooperate by rolling over and playing dead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/opinion/26thur1.html?hp