Updated: Latest from the horse's mouth.
Just finished a conference call with Senator kennedy and a half-dozen writers from the leftisphere.
First, the news. At 3:30 the "Gang of 14" will meet and the whole thing will rest on whether they consider the Alito nomination to be an "extraordinary circumstance." If they don't, the seven Dems have made a gentleman's agreement that they'll vote for cloture and the final vote on the nomination will go ahead as planned tomorrow. Kennedy expects that 40-42 Dems and 2 or 3 Republicans will vote against; C-Span's tally is 56-37 on the final vote, with a few undecideds.
I pushed the Senator to give us a sense of who we should be focusing on right now, in the final hour. Here's who's on the bubble:
Cantwell
Murray
Akaka
Inoue
Kohl
Also uncommitted (and in need of attention) are:
Levin
Stabenow
Menendez (who I heard had signed on)
Lautenberg
Contact info at Democrats.com.
UPDATE: Some analysis below the fold ...
