It's no surprise, but the Democrats lack the 41 votes they'd need to pull off a filibuster against Samuel Alito. That means that -- barring the re-incarnation of Anita Hill -- there will be a vote on Monday to cut off debate and then a vote on Tuesday to officially confirm him. That's a real victory for President Bush in more ways than one -- he desperately wanted to hail his big win in his State of the Union speech that night.

Unless...

Nobody asked us, but if Harry Reid had a true flare for politics -- and for the dramatic -- he would try to convince his 43 other members, in the name of party unity, to filibuster Alito...for exactly one day. Why? Because Tuesday night will be the one night in the first half of 2006 when regular folks may actually watch a political event on television.

How dramatic would it be for the big anchors to start their broadcasts at 9 p.m. with the news that Democrats had banded together -- for 24 hours, in the spirit of Jefferson Smith -- to tell America what they really think of Alito, that he will tip the scales on the High Court for big business and big government against the little guy.

It it will deny Bush his magic moment.

Just a thought.