John Kerry’s Last Stand: The Alito Filibuster Backstory

Last week, when Senator John F. Kerry issued a vocal call for a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito, Jr. — going so far as to blog about it — many Democrats and Republicans had the same reaction: “What the hell is he thinking?” The fact that Senator Kerry issued this clarion call to arms from Switzerland, of all places, didn’t exactly help. As White House press secretary Scott McClellan put it, “Even for a senator, it takes some pretty serious yodeling to call for a filibuster from a five-star ski resort in the Swiss Alps.” As the New York Times aptly summarized matters, “Democrats cringed and Republicans jeered at the awkwardness of his gesture, which almost no one in the Senate expects to succeed.”

After the Alito cloture vote this afternoon, this will all be nothing more than an embarrassing memory. But, since we had nothing better to do with our weekend, we did some poking around into what might have been running through John Kerry’s elongated head.

The rumor going around in Judiciary Committee circles late last week was that Senator Kerry’s decision to filibuster was staff-driven. Speculation focused in one staff member in particular: Mirah Horowitz, one of Kerry’s chief legal advisors. Horowitz is a liberal lawyer and blonde braniac who previously clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer, before joining a decidedly less successful enterprise — the Kerry presidential campaign.

Was there any truth to this rumor of Mirah Horowitz exercising excessive influence over John Kerry? Details after the jump.

READ MORE: filibuster, jessica cutler, john f. kerry, judiciary committee, mirah horowitz, samuel alito, supreme court, washingtoninenne