Obama gets it!

Participating in the Sunday roundup of politico-TV, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) apparently threw in his $0.02 on the idea of filibustering the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I didn't see the segment, but an AP article is posted here at Yahoo! News, confirming the rumor reported here by Buzzflash.

Obama is correct when he says that Alito is "contrary to core American values, not just liberal values." But more importantly, Obama pointed out that the best way to ensure that judges mirroring the values held by the blue states is to elect Presidents and Senators who believe them also. This is exactly the point: John Kerry lost his filibuster call on Alito in November of 2004, when by a scant majority in Ohio, he lost the White House to Bush#43.

The answer here is not to fight the battles we know we'll lose, but to look to the battles we can win. In last week's Kiplinger Tax Letter (pricey subscription required), the analysts highlighted one version of a proposed Democratic tax reform package. Seems that Bush#43 didn't like what his tax reform panel had to say, and has decided to let it slide for a while...can't imagine why?
Cost overruns in Iraq, and sizable federal subsidies after Katrina are turning his deficits into three-headed fire-breathing dragons.

But back to the Democratic ideals: let's take the reform bill out and let it shine in the light of day. Put it on the test track, and see how it runs. I kind of like the idea of beating Bush on the tax question...

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And on a tangent, I'd just like to congratulate Alan Greenspan on a great job at the helm of the Federal Reserve. He's been running the show since I was in middle school, and he's done an amazing job. Thanks, Alan, for giving us "Irrational Exuberance," a phrase so entwined into American culture that a modern composer (arggh, can't find his name!) recently stole it to title a piece of contemporary classical music that debuted at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra last fall.

So now we turn to Ben Bernanke, a first rate economist, and small-town native of the Carolinas. I wish him the best of luck, and look forward to his sound bites on N.P.R.