Monday, January 09, 2006

Alito and the Senators

Want to make any predictions on the Alito hearings? Some should be obvious.

Ted Kennedy will make long prattling questions with large numbers of assumptions and then get totally pissed off when Alito doesn't answer with a yes or no.
Schumer will grand stand and state that Alito is dodging the question or isn't being truthful when Alito states his judicial opinion and it conflicts with Schumer's.
Biden's head will spin like a top when Alito disagrees with him.
Feinstein will be the rabid abortion questioner and will not listen to arguments that aren't simple agreement with abortion as a clear-cut right.
None of these will vote for him irrespective of his actual judicial abilities or the logic of his answers.

Can anyone else smell a Borking coming on? Though I'm going to bet Alito is much more politic than Bork was. Not that he really should be. I suppose he could look at this as a hazing ritual prior to getting the job.

SCOTUSblog has a quick discussion related to the presidential powers topic.

ProfessorBainBridge has a piece on the fact-challenged editorial in the NYTimes on Alito. This is especially sad seeing that the NYTimes is probably going to be the only place that many people get their facts on Alito's positions.

How Appealing has a run down of lots of Alito articles and editorials.

Final Obvious Prediction: This is going to be ugly.


2 comments:

Granted said...

Oh boy is this going to be ugly. Still, I suspect it's going to be a big loud bang followed by a very tiny explosion as those who wouldn't have voted for Martin Luther King if George Bush was the person who nominated him will vote against Alito and lose.

Malott said...

It always seems to come down to abortion. I wonder how many Americans realize that overturning Roe wouldn't make abortion illegal, but simply place the issue back in the state legislatures where it belongs?

That fact is something that the Dems no doubt would prefer to keep a secret.

Nice site.