Dan Gerstein thinks that we shouldn't blame Lieberman for not voting to filibuster Alito. Matt Yglesias partly agrees. I don't agree at all.
I'm not buying Gerstein's claim that a Lieberman filibuster vote would've triggered the nuclear option. See Mark Schmitt on November 1:
But to pull off the Nuclear Option banning filibusters on judicial nominations will still require an extraordinary exercise of leadership and party discipline to force Senators to do something many of them don't want to do. Frist couldn't quite pull it off five months ago, he sure can't do it now... the prospect of a "final showdown" in which Alito is confirmed by the Nuclear tactic is just not going to happen in a Senate effectively run by Harry Reid.
