Buster is the name. Fili Buster.

Sen. Barack Obama said he would vote Monday to filibuster Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court, but he conceded the effort would be futile and criticized Democrats for failing to persuade Americans to take notice of the court's changing ideological face.

"The Democrats have to do a much better job in making their case on these issues," Obama (D-Ill.) said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week." "These last-minute efforts--using procedural maneuvers inside the Beltway--I think has been the wrong way of going about it." - Chicago Tribune

Well, Barack, yes, they should have done it sooner, but better late than never.

If they HAD done it sooner, it is at least POSSIBLE that Alito's approval would not be an inevitability, and yes, it's pathetic that the Democrats only get up off their collective beltway asses and do the right thing when it doesn't have a chance in hell of actually changing anything.

But the biggest problem that the Democrats have is the perception they they don't stand for anything but pure politics.

Taking a stand when they have nothing concrete to gain is exactly what they should do. Like it or not, the public perception of the Democrats is NOT unjustified. They have EARNED the image of spinelessness by being spineless.

And one way to draw attention to Alito's extremism is to do something dramatic. A filibuster is dramatic.

But I am getting seriously sick of the Democrats SAYING that they need to a better job communicating. They've been saying that for years. Maybe it's time they started DOING it instead of talking about it.

UPDATE: Liberal Oasis makes this rather obvious point (which is why I didn't think of it):

[Obama says that] “the Democrats” are the problem. Because they weren’t “making their case.”

Newsflash to Obama: You. Are. A. Democrat.

And you weren’t exactly shouting from the mountaintops making a case against Alito.

You refused to join the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus when they annnounced opposition to Alito in December, preferring to say at the time your mind wasn’t made up yet.

Just last week, you couldn’t even be bothered to mention Alito when you appeared on Sunday’s highest-rated talk show.

You say last minute procedural maneuvers are what’s wrong with the party, yet you didn’t want to make up your mind until the last minute.