Dear Senator Bond

I'm proud of you and grateful. God bless you and keep up the good work.

This is powerful, Stephano. Right on point and a great mix of facts and acknowledgement of the Senator's service to Missouri.

If you read this in the near future, I just drafted a letter and would appreciate your input/critique.

Maybe we should consider you as our letter writer, eh?

Thankx again.
Mrs. AL

Stefano. Two thoughts beyond your issue, however.

(1) I don't see Bond, et al, as able to sustain a filibuster on ANYTHING beyond five minutes. Liberals are gonna have their way.

(2) I'll hope that the good conservatives of Missouri will "show me" a true conservative replacement in 2010. Kit Bond has been marginal.

but Ashcroft and Talent were bonafide conservatives. We are basically a 50/50 state and a single issue or event can shift the election one way or the other. We lost Ashcroft when his opponent, Governor Mel Carnahan, was killed in an airplane accident. It was a close race at the time but after the accident, Carnahan won on a sympathy vote. Democrat Governor Roger Wilson (who had moved up from Lt. Governor) promised to appoint Mrs. Carnahan if he husband won posthumously. Talent beat Mrs. Carnahan handily in the next election. Then Talent was defeated by McCaskill due to the bogus claims of embryonic stem cell research proponents and the wave of Democrat wins in the off year election. I hope for a true conservative in two years also.

As far as a filibuster succeeding, it seems that we seldom have an actual filibuster. It's the threat of filibuster and the failure of votes to close off debate that matter. In reality, it's the only political hope we have to defeat horrific legislation like FOCA.