In in the comments to Armando's posts on the Roberts nomination at DKos, and in one of Booman's posts on the same topic here, I argued strongly in favor of a "stand on principle" rather than a "keep our powder dry" strategy on this issue, in order to properly frame and set up for the fight over Justice O'Connor's replacement. Since I believe that positive reinforcement is as important as negative, below is my letter to Sen. Feinstein, who is regarded as a swing vote on these issues but today voted against Roberts in the Judiciary Committee. Hopefully this indicates that she will be willing to take a principled stand on the next nominee as well, and support efforts to block this nominee if necessary. And hopefully her Democratic colleagues will do the same.
So I'm thinking maybe it's a good idea for as many of us as possible to send both positive and negative reinforcement to our Democratic (and moderate Republican?) Senators over their votes on this issue, and let them know in advance how we feel about the battle to come.
Cross-posted over there ...
