From Pam’s House Blend:

The vote was 58 to 42. Enough to have sustained a filibuster even without Chafee if 16 Senators believed in more than empty gestures. And Olympia Snowe voted for Alito. There is no middle in the Republican Party. There is only Democratic capitulation masking as moderation.

Dig it. If every senator who voted against confirmation had voted to sustain the filibuster, Alito would not now be a supreme court justice. But you can count on the fact that they’ll try to use their ‘no’ vote on confirmation as proof they’re willing to take a stand for the rights of women and minorities. It’s an empty stand though, as befitting an empty party.

So I got an email from Howard Dean this morning. Well…it said it was from Howard Dean. It may well have even been from Howard Dean. But it wasn’t to me, it was to the DNC mailing list I happened to be on. And so I logged on to the DNC website and I fired back some feedback, basically telling them how I felt like I’d been slapped in the face after they choose a gutter crawling bigot to give the democratic party response to Bush’s state of the union speech.

I got Mr. Dean’s email this morning. The subject line was "What we didn’t hear tonight". But it isn’t what I didn’t hear, it’s what I did. Specifically, I heard homophobic bigot Tim Kaine give the democratic party’s response to Bush’s state of the union. I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face.

I don’t know why you think that gay and lesbian Americans should keep giving you money and support if you’re going to keep kicking us around to try and peel off a little the bigot vote from the republicans. I’m sick of being treated like radioactive material by democrats. I’m an American. Kaine not only wants to ban same sex marriage, he wants to ban even the second class civil unions. The amendment to Virginia’s constitution that he signed off on, is a sweeping attack on our households, on our families, on us. It is breathtaking how broad the attack on us by him is. And there he was last night on my TV screen…speaking for the democratic party.

I can’t begin to tell you how angry I am. Just a few weeks ago I watched sickened while a New Jersey policewoman, Laural Hestor, dying of cancer, begged her local government to do for her life partner upon death, what it would have routinely done for any married couple…extend her pension to her, so she could keep their house. Finally, it was republicans who pressured the Ocean County freeholders to reverse themselves and grant the benefit. Tim Kaine would have taken even that small measure of hope away from Hestor and her partner. Why are gay and lesbian Americans still having to beg to be treated fairly and decently by our government? I can’t begin to tell you how angry I am.

…and so on and so forth. Yes…I know… As if they care…