Harry Reid says a filibuster against Samuel Alito can’t succeed but that he’ll support it anyway. This is peculiar. One of the classic rules in Washington politics is that it weakens a party and its leadership to go down to defeat on a high-profile vote. Traditionally, parties and their leaders seek to minimize conflict and reduce friction when the endgame isn’t going their way so that they can limit the perception that they are losers. Either we are living in a new time with entirely new rules — in which it’s better to lose big because it looks like you’re standing on principle and can raise money that way — or Reid and those few quixotic Democrats who want to filibuster have completely lost their political bearings and no longer know what is best for them or their party. I honestly don’t know which. Anybody have any theories?