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"Kook (n): a person regarded as silly, eccentric, crazy, etc." - Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language

Last week, it became obvious that blue state senators were hearing from the kooks who control today's Democratic Party. The kooks are up in arms over the fact that Judge Samuel Alito is about to be confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, and they are demanding a filibuster on the floor of the United States Senate. No matter how ridiculous such a maneuver may appear, they want it.

Democrats like New York's Chuck Schumer can usually be counted on to support the agenda of the kook base. This time, however, Schumer, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, apparently is agonizing over whether to embarrass himself and his party by supporting such a futile move in an election year.

Meanwhile, a handful of stalwarts apparently have decided to tilt at one more windmill. Among them are Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Both hail from the People's Republic of Massachusetts, so neither has to concern himself with appearing too radical to be re-elected.

Kennedy, having failed to stop the Alito nomination in committee, now supports a filibuster on the senate floor. But then, Ted doesn't just listen to the kooks. He is one.

Kerry, always concerned with the rights of the little guy, addressed the masses from the mountaintop -- literally. Speaking from a ski resort in Davos, Switzerland, Kerry took time away from his exhaustive labors serving the public good at the World Economic Forum to assure the kooks that, yes, he would indeed come down from the mountain and lead the nation out of the wilderness of right wing tyranny by supporting the unsustainable filibuster.

"Judge Alito has consistently made it harder for Americans to have their day in court," Kerry said. "He routinely defers to the power of the government, no matter how extreme. And he doesn't believe women have a right to privacy that's protected by the Constitution."

Not to be outmaneuvered on the left in the race for president, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, announced that she, too, will support the filibuster. After months of acting like a red state moderate and a hawk on the war in Iraq, Hillary apparently has read the poll numbers and concluded that unless she reverts to type, she may not pick up the kook vote necessary to win her party's nomination in 2008.

"I oppose his nomination and support efforts to block his confirmation," Hillary said last week. "I do not think Judge Alito would advance the principles Americans hold most dear," she said, adding that she would vote against a move to cut off a filibuster, should one occur.

By the weekend, it was unclear exactly how many blue staters would follow Kerry and Clinton's lead. An article in The Los Angeles Times reported that California's Barbara Boxer, Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, Michigan's Debbie Stabenow and Richard Durbin of Illinois also were planning to support the filibuster.

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