Pass the Chips, It's Filibuster Time!

Have you noticed how Judge Samuel Alito's last name makes every reference to him sound like a spontaneously invented nickname? ("Hey Sam! Samalito! Sam-meister!") That's pretty much all Bostonist can think about these days when we hear the name of the man who would be judge, mostly because we're trying to distract ourselves from the awful fact of his imminent appointment. Luckily, a new diversion is coming down the pike, and its name is filibuster. Yessiree, just as Bostonist hoped, C-SPAN viewers may soon find their living rooms filled with the sonorous cadences of Massachusetts English, as the Commonwealth's two Senators pull a Mr.-Smith-Goes-to-Washington and spend some quality hours reading the phone book into the Congressional record. It remains to be seen whether the Republicans have the 60 votes necessary to override a filibuster (the only Republican to oppose Alito, Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee, says he won't support a filibuster, as do some Democrats), but Messrs Kennedy and Kerry clearly have their eyes on spiting the President, who has said he wants the Sammerator on the bench before tomorrow night's State of the Union speech.