(2006-01-27) — A spokesman for Sen. John Kerry’s government-in-exile in Switzerland today said that the Massachusetts Democrat’s threatened filibuster of Judge Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court confirmation is part of Sen. Kerry’s secret plan to position himself as “the party’s strong second choice in 2008.”

While Democrats wondered, and Republicans jeered, at the apparently futile filibuster effort, the senator’s spokesman said “no one should underestimate Sen. Kerry. It would be very difficult to do so.”

The unnamed spokesman said that the man who lost his 2004 presidential bid by a mere 3.5 million votes has a detailed plan that will bring him within several hundred delegates of capturing the next Democrat presidential nomination. Staging a failed filibuster attempt, the source said, “is just one shrewd tactic in a brilliantly-conceived strategy by a man who knows something about strategy and tactics from his days as a Navy swift boat commander in Vietnam.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, who joined the filibuster effort, is reportedly on Sen. Kerry’s short list of potential running mates.

“Ted Kennedy has what it takes to jump in, should anything happen to Kerry, and to rapidly assume his duties as Hillary Clinton’s understudy,” the source said, “Both men are ready to take the lead if Mrs. Clinton gets struck by a meteorite, contracts the ebola virus, decides not to run in 2008 or in any of the other equally-likely scenarios.”