Could they stand on their hind legs? Do you think?

performing pastel-colored poodle,
in a clown and poodle show
[OCRegister]

Ari Berman in The Nation takes a look at the Dems, embroiled in their running soap opera of duck and cover. Hide from it all but be The Alternative --also known as The Candidate:

Iraq returned as a central theme in George W. Bush's State of the Union address this year. With the war on the minds of many members of the public and with the 2006 midterm elections approaching, it seemed natural that the opposition party would forcefully challenge the President's policy.

Last week was an exhausting week for most of us. With a one week delay to give the Democratic senators time to do what they didn't do during the hearings, namely prepare for the biggest fight yet for women's rights, it gives us a chance to evaluate where we are as Democrats and how commited we are or are not to the party that seemingly has left many of us behind. It says a lot that the spat between Specter and Kennedy, that the crying jag of Martha Alito, were what made the headlines, it speaks not just to our media but also to the job the Democratic senators did or rather did not do.

When we hear on the Sunday talk shows that half of the senators didn't know what `unitary executive power' was it's like a slap in the face. When executive powers became as hot a button issue as abortion has been since Alito was nominated, I felt a rush of hope. If the Democratic and Republican senators didn't have what it takes to protect a woman's right to choose surely they would care about the place Congress has in governing this great nation of ours. Or as we saw, would they?

Things don't look good for American women tonight. If anyone wants to sit in the courtroom and listen to the prosecution's case just head next door to mediagirl and read her words.

And Daou for something completely different: the anti-choice Democratic party

And after you do that, you can sit in the jury room for a bit, at Tennessee Guerilla Women, and listen to what the jury has to say.

Feminist Bloggers On ScAlito or Where Are the Fighting Dems?

This fighting Dems frame is a pig in a poke. I haven't really seen anyone fighting.

Hey, Y'all

Please come over to Culture Kitchen and help us come up with the top three questions liberal bloggers want answered in these hearings.

Please hurry - time's a-wastin'!

Thanks so much!

Liberal Street Fighter

Samuel Alito, a man manifestly outside the political and social mainstream of American life, is facing the Senate Judiciary panel all this week. Like most rightwing extremists in the modern Republican party, this man is completely unable to straightforwardly express what he believes. He bobs, he weaves, he spins out mealy-mouthed strings of blather:

LEAHY: Well, let's go into one of those specifics. Do you believe the president has the constitutional authority as commander in chief to override laws enacted by Congress and immunize people under his command from prosecutions that they violate, these laws passed by Congress?