One small step

...toward a neo-fascist state. It looks like we haven't managed to come up with enough votes to stop the cloture vote the GOP has been pushing like hell for ahead of the State of the Union address. Alito will be confirmed, and starting tomorrow every right-wing hack out there will be clubbing Democrats for their attempts at "obstruction," by which they mean reasoned debate.

My fear is that a few wimpy Dems will have, through their unwillingness to stand strong against the Bushies, succeeded only in further souring the base on their own party. Even as they further consolidate Bush's power. Only 25 or so senators voted against cloture. Four Democrats have announced that they will vote to confirm Alito tomorrow morning, apparently having adopted the motto "We will not go down without a whimper."

UPDATE: Markos Moulitsas has a post up that makes me feel a little better about the whole thing. Follow the title link to read it. The GOP has been working on this for thirty years (and spending those hundreds of millions to do it), but we have to hang in there for the elections this fall. We didn't have much of a chance on this one, shameful as the Alito nomination is, but we did demonstrate that the netroots have a voice and our actions can make a difference.