Ann Coulter

Defending his opposition to Judge Samuel Alito, Democratic Sen. John Kerry invoked the name of Ann Coulter, contending the popular WND columnist's support of the nomination is a good reason not to vote for it.

Speaking from the Senate floor during debate, Kerry charged President Bush "made this nomination about his political base," seeking an "ideological shift in the Court."

"If you need proof, just look at the response of Ann Coulter," the senator said Wednesday, according to a transcript on his website. "Ms. Coulter is as inflammatory and as conservative as anyone in the country. She makes her living through character assassination. She denounced the nomination of John Roberts."

Kerry continued:

[Coulter] attacked the nomination of Harriet Miers, calling her completely unqualified and lamenting that President Bush had 'thrown away a Supreme Court seat.' Yet she celebrated the nomination of Samuel Alito, stating that Bush gave Democrats 'a right-hook' with this 'stunningly qualified' nominee. This from a woman who said that Republicans need to nominate a person who 'wake[s] up every morning . . . chortling about how much his latest opinion will tick off the left.'

Kerry then referred to support for Alito from Judge Robert Bork, whose nomination by President Reagan to the Supreme Court in 1987 was blocked by Democrats, and commentator and former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan.

"They say you can tell a lot by somebody's friends," Kerry said. "These three individuals are on the furthest side of the ideological spectrum. Their positions rarely advance the interests of average working folk in America. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that these folks have jumped to support Judge Alito."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Never one to pull punches, Coulter, trained as a lawyer, is praised by supporters as a provocative, witty and incisive writer with a dead-on appraisal of liberalism and the Democratic Party.

In a Nov. 2 column after Bush announced his selection to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Coulter quipped, "There is no question about Alito's qualifications. Democrats can only oppose him for his record, which will alarm a narrow segment of lunatics commonly known as 'the Democratic Party base.'"

Kerry reportedly is trying to mobilize support for a filibuster to block the nomination.

The Massachusetts senator, in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum, is making phone calls to Senate colleagues to prevent Republicans from getting the 60 votes they need to overcome a filibuster attempt, reports CNN.

Kerry opened his remarks Wednesday asserting Bush has "nominated a man who consistently defers to the government action regardless of how egregious it may be; a man who erects rather than breaks down barriers in the area of civil rights, a man who, to this day, has never retreated from his declaration that the Constitution does not protect a woman's right to privacy, a man who has demonstrated a persistent insensitivity to the history of racial discrimination in this country and, was even, at the government’s request, willing to ignore overwhelming evidence that African Americans were intentionally stricken from an all-white jury in a black defendant’s capital case."

The Senate is debating the nomination after it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 10-8, partisan-line vote.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has said that if the Democrats decide to filibuster, he would employ the "nuclear option" to ban the procedure, which requires a majority vote in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Responding to Kerry's call for a filibuster, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., declared during floor remarks yesterday, "This isn't going to happen."

"I know people get desperate fearing something is going to happen to their liberal agenda," he said, "... but nowhere did our founding fathers say that to approve a judge you had to have a super majority."

Previous stories:

Kerry seeking Alito filibuster

Schumer besieges Alito on abortion

Kennedy: Record 'troubles me deeply'

Bush's base cheers Alito