Sens. Pat Leahy, Dick Durbin and Ted Kennedy have spoken out against the Alito nomination — outside the Senate floor, because Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) has declared that there will be no floor speeches on the nomination within the Senate prior to any vote. Nice. Now the Republicans want to restrict freedom of speech within the halls of government as well as at Presidential Town Hall Meetings. (For text of Sen. Kennedy’s speech, read here. Sen. Leahy’s speech can be found here.)

Kos has been running a whip count on the Alito nomination, so go check and see where your Senators are leaning. I called both my Senators yesterday to lodge my thoughts against Judge Alito’s nomination, and staff in Sen. Byrd’s and Sen. Rockefeller’s offices were very polite and very receptive. If you call, be polite but firm, and give facts as to why you oppose the nomination — informed voters are carry more weight with staffers.

The vote in or out of the Judiciary Committee is scheduled for the 24th of January.

UPDATE: The WaPo’s Jim Brady will be online at noon ET to discuss the comments issue and Deborah Howell. You can submit your questions early at this link. Ought to be..erm…interesting, to say the least.