Kerry, Miserable Failure
Many of you will catch that joke, but it’s becoming more and more a reality when dealing with Senator John Kerry (D-MA). After losing the Presidential election in 2004, he’s been on a tear of losing. The latest in the string of defeats being that really good job he did getting that whole “filibuster” thing going, as described by Matt Margolis at Blogs for Bush:
John Kerry’s failure to convince his fellow Democrats to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito proves once and for all his irrelevency politics. It wasn’t too long ago when he was his party’s presidential nominee, and now he doesn’t have the clout to get 40 of his colleagues to join him in a filibuster, which, if you believed his rhetoric, would have prevented return of segregation, slavery, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women.
No, it didn’t happen. A mere 25 voted to sustain a filibuster. Just like Ohio in November 2004, Kerry didn’t have the votes. The moment Kerry’s filibuster failed so handily was the moment his political career got flushed down the toilet. John Kerry may not be ruling out another presidential run in 2008, but his party certainly ruled it out for him.
Perhaps now he’ll have to take care of that “I’ll release my 180″ thing. No? As Ed Morrissey puts it at Captain’s Quarters (Warning: hilarious picture alert!):
You’re a former presidential candidate from one of the major political parties and a member of the Senate. You’ve called for a party-line vote on a major issue against the opposition, investing your reputation and your credibility into the effort. However, you can only convince half of your caucus to vote with you, and even half of those tell reporters what a stupid idea it was from the outset. What happens afterwards?
Kerry: Am I done?
Yes, Senator, you’re done. We only wish you’d realize it.
This was originally supposed to be a gloatfest over how the Supreme Court is now going to be packed chock-full of ultra-right-wing conservative extremists who will discriminate and take away our rights and force everybody to worship Jesus and no more drinking or smoking or fun or staying out late or lighting up or snorting something. This IS how Hitler started, you know. Fascists.
Heh.
UPDATE: IMAO says what I wish I had.
UPDATE 2: More on from the fish in the barrel from Right Wing Nation. (Yes, I take requests)
For the record, here’s the vote, with who voted fer what (kinda not surprising 58-42):
Akaka (D-HI) - No
Alexander (R-TN) - Yes
Allard (R-CO) - Yes
Allen (R-VA) - Yes
Baucus (D-MT) - No
Bayh (D-IN) - No
Bennett (R-UT) - Yes
Biden (D-DE) - No
Bingaman (D-NM) - No
Bond (R-MO) - Yes
Boxer (D-CA) - No
Brownback (R-KS) - Yes
Bunning (R-KY) - Yes
Burns (R-MT) - Yes
Burr (R-NC) - Yes
Byrd (D-WV) - Yes
Cantwell (D-WA) - No
Carper (D-DE) - No
Chafee (R-RI) - No
Chambliss (R-GA) - Yes
Clinton (D-NY) - No
Coburn (R-OK) - Yes
Cochran (R-MS) - Yes
Coleman (R-MN) - Yes
Collins (R-ME) - Yes
Conrad (D-ND) - Yes
Cornyn (R-TX) - Yes
Craig (R-ID) - Yes
Crapo (R-ID) - Yes
Dayton (D-MN) - No
DeMint (R-SC) - Yes
DeWine (R-OH) - Yes
Dodd (D-CT) - No
Dole (R-NC) - Yes
Domenici (R-NM) - Yes
Dorgan (D-ND) - No
Durbin (D-IL) - No
Ensign (R-NV) - Yes
Enzi (R-WY) - Yes
Feingold (D-WI) - No
Feinstein (D-CA) - No
Frist (R-TN) - Yes
Graham (R-SC) - Yes
Grassley (R-IA) - Yes
Gregg (R-NH) - Yes
Hagel (R-NE) - Yes
Harkin (D-IA) - No
Hatch (R-UT) - Yes
Hutchison (R-TX) - Yes
Inhofe (R-OK) - Yes
Inouye (D-HI) - No
Isakson (R-GA) - Yes
Jeffords (I-VT) - No
Johnson (D-SD) - Yes
Kennedy (D-MA) - No
Kerry (D-MA) - No
Kohl (D-WI) - No
Kyl (R-AZ) - Yes
Landrieu (D-LA) - No
Lautenberg (D-NJ) - No
Leahy (D-VT) - No
Levin (D-MI) - No
Lieberman (D-CT) - No
Lincoln (D-AR) - No
Lott (R-MS) - Yes
Lugar (R-IN) - Yes
Martinez (R-FL) - Yes
McCain (R-AZ) - Yes
McConnell (R-KY) - Yes
Menendez (D-NJ) - No
Mikulski (D-MD) - No
Murkowski (R-AK) - Yes
Murray (D-WA) - No
Nelson (D-FL) - No
Nelson (D-NE) - Yes
Obama (D-IL) - No
Pryor (D-AR) - No
Reed (D-RI) - No
Reid (D-NV) - No
Roberts (R-KS) - Yes
Rockefeller (D-WV) - No
Salazar (D-CO) - No
Santorum (R-PA) - Yes
Sarbanes (D-MD) - No
Schumer (D-NY) - No
Sessions (R-AL) - Yes
Shelby (R-AL) - Yes
Smith (R-OR) - Yes
Snowe (R-ME) - Yes
Specter (R-PA) - Yes
Stabenow (D-MI) - No
Stevens (R-AK) - Yes
Sununu (R-NH) - Yes
Talent (R-MO) - Yes
Thomas (R-WY) - Yes
Thune (R-SD) - Yes
Vitter (R-LA) - Yes
Voinovich (R-OH) - Yes
Warner (R-VA) - Yes
Wyden (D-OR) - No
rightwingprof says:
IMAO is like that, though I had a bit of fun myself.