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Here's the Terry Jeffrey - Paul Begala exchange from earlier this afternoon. Begala haas never been challenged so hard on his spit, spin, and nasty attacks.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0601/11/se.03.html

WOLF BLITZER: "It's almost 2 p.m. in Louisville, and we've been listening to what the president has to say. And a new plan for New Orleans to make a comeback. It's 1 p.m. in that hurricane torn city, and local leaders are getting ready to unveil their vision for how and where to rebuild.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

As Senate Judiciary Committee members return from their lunch break, there may still be some hard feelings in the hearing room. While Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito remained calm, Democrat Edward Kennedy and Republican Chairman Arlen Specter had a testy exchange.

It began when Kennedy asked the committee to subpoena records of a Princeton alumni group that's been a source of controversy during the questioning of Judge Alito. Alito has said he doesn't recall being a member of that group known for opposing college admission for women and minorities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Executive session for the sole purpose of voting on a subpoena for these records that are held over at the Library of Congress, that purpose and that purpose only. And If I'm going to be denied that, I would want to give notice to the chair that you are going to have it again and again and again, and we're going to have votes of this committee again and again and again until we have a resolution.

And I think...

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Well, Senator Kennedy, I'm not concerned about your threats to have votes again, again and again. And I'm the chairman of this committee, and I have heard your request, and I will consider it. And I'm not going to have you run this committee and decide when we're going to go into executive session.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our congressional correspondent, Ed Henry. He's joining us now live from the Hill.

An extraordinary little exchange there. Normally these senators are very polite, Ed, as you know, with each other.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And the story behind the story here is that there's a lot of grumbling in the hallways, the back rooms among liberal activists, even some Democratic senators and senior staffers here, that the so-called top of the batting order for the Democrat senators on this committee have really been swinging and missing so far. And so there's a lot of pressure on Kennedy, Leahy, Joe Biden and others to really crank it up a notch.

And I think that's the subtext here, why you saw Kennedy really losing it a little bit. And the bottom line is that the White House could care less about that, because as you noted, Wolf, Alito is still staying calm and cool. He's not being drawn into this.

Specter, Kennedy, all the other senators can fight all day. But if Alito just keeps sailing along, the White House will feel just great.

And, you know, what the liberal activists up here are saying privately is just a couple weeks ago it looked like a real possibility that Democrats might mount a filibuster. But as you heard Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic senator say in THE SITUATION ROOM just in the last hour, she doesn't see any real reason for a filibuster at this point.

That's really frustrating the activists. They feel that the Democrats have been talking a good game, the senators up here, that's there a lot on the line here, Roe v. Wade, social policy for the next three or four decades with this nomination. But what they saw yesterday, in particular, and until that moment with Kennedy a short while ago, is not really a lot of pressure from the Democratic senators.

And I think, though, in fairness to some of the senators on the committee -- I just got off the phone with a senior Democratic aide who said, look, a lot of the liberal groups have had really unrealistic expectations. They thought it would be easy to take out Judge Samuel Alito. But the bottom line is, he's been calm and cool, and he's really been just sailing along -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed Henry reporting for us.

Thanks very much, Ed.

Let's get some analysis of what's going on, what has gone on, what's likely to go on. Joining us, Democratic strategist and CNN political analyst, Paul Begala, and Terry Jeffrey, the -- of Human Events Online.

Terry, you went to Princeton University around this time. First of all, were you a member of Concerned Alumni of Princeton?

TERRY JEFFREY, EDITOR, HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE: No, I was not a member. Actually, I graduated in 1981, so I that would have been nine years after Judge Alito. But no, I'm not a member.

BLITZER: But that was four years before he listed Concerned Alumni of Princeton on his job application.

JEFFREY: Right. Well, first, Wolf, I'd like to say, I don't want to accept Teddy Kennedy's characterization of what Concerned Alumni of Princeton was all about. I wouldn't take it on his word. I'd want to look at what they actually have said, I'd want to see the quotes and context.

Senator Kennedy had a little snippet from an article. I would want to see the whole article.

But I will tell you what I think a lot of the conservatives around the country right now are finding ludicrous. You have this guy who's born with a platinum spoon in his mouth, he probably wouldn't have been half of what he has been in his life were it not for his family's wealth and connections. And he's going after this Italian guy from a hardworking family on the east side of Trenton who worked his way up through Princeton and Yale Law School.

Not only that. This is a guy who could have gone out in private practice of law and made more than a million dollars a year. Instead, he's dedicated his entire life to public service.

At Princeton we have a motto. They tell you the first day you get there as a freshman, "Princeton in the Nation's Service." It comes from a speech that Woodrow Wilson gave at the centennial celebration at Princeton in 1896.

No one that I've seen as a Princeton alumnist in public policy life has been more a person who dedicated his life to the nation's service than this judge, who could have gone, as I said, into private practice, been a multimillionaire. Every day of his life after Yale Law School dedicated to the pursuit of justice in the law for his country.

BLITZER: He makes a good case for Samuel Alito's confirmation.

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure. And dedicated to keep blacks and women out of Princeton.

Now, Terry didn't join that group. He's conservative. He's probably more conservative than Judge Alito. Why?

Because you don't want to keep blacks and women out of your college, Terry.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: It's a reactionary, right wing, white male organization that wanted to keep this elite private academy the private playground of elite white men. And I think that it's an important issue.

I thought, frankly, the judge did not handle it well. First he said he didn't remember, and then he said, well, it was about the ROTC, which is preposterous.

And if I can step back for a minute, though, and get to the strategy of this, though, Wolf, I talked to a senior member of the committee before these hearings began about the strategy Democrats have here, and what this person told me is, they understand there's a very strong likelihood they are going to lose. The Republicans have the majority.

But what they want to do if they can't win is show the country what Democrats stand for. And I think that's an important thing.

And so now half of the voters in America are women. A sizable percentage are African-American and other racial minorities. And they are being told that there are some Republicans like Judge Alito who don't -- who haven't always supported full equal rights for them, and Democrats will fight for those equal rights. And that's an important distinction.

BLITZER: Did this group, Concerned Alumni for Princeton, want to prevent women -- prevent Princeton from being coeducational, prevent minorities from getting special treatment to be admitted into Princeton?

JEFFREY: Well, I kind of doubt that. I don't know the facts, Wolf.

I would guess -- this is just a guess -- that they might have been against affirmative action. I can't believe they would have been against coeducation.

I did see a statement that someone sent me this morning that was made by Judge Andrew Napolitano, who is a classmate of Judge Alito and is a very good friend of his who actually was a member -- an officer of Concerned Alumni of Princeton during the '70s, where he said that what they did do, in fact, was worked very hard to get the ROTC returned to the campus at Princeton, which is why Judge Alito says he suspects he may have been a member.

Let me address something Paul said. Paul said -- if I understood you correctly -- that Judge Alito is someone who was in favor of discrimination against blacks and women at Princeton. I haven't seen any evidence of that, period.

BEGALA: That's not what I said.

JEFFREY: And not only that. When it was brought up yesterday, I believe by Senator Kennedy, Judge Alito made a great joke that he had gone -- never gone to an all-male school until he got to Princeton. And when he got there, he appreciated how much he liked coeducation.

And I can tell you as a male who went to Princeton, when there are a lot more men than women, I think it was probably about 100 percent of the men in Princeton while I was there wished there were more girls.

BEGALA: That may well be. And this should be sorted out. I didn't go -- I went to the University of Texas. And, by the way, it took the United States Supreme Court to integrate my law school in the case of 1948 of Sweat versus Painter.

So these questions of integration often come to the Supreme Court. And it may well be that Concerned Alumni of Princeton was just kind of about the football team and nice things, but the allegation is out there...

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY: Judge Alito...

BEGALA: The allegation is that the group is racist.

JEFFREY: Do you believe he's a racist? Do you believe Judge Alito is a racist?

BEGALA: I don't know. I didn't go to Princeton. I never heard of this group until a few weeks ago.

JEFFREY: Do you believe Judge Alito is a racist?

BEGALA: I didn't go to Princeton. I don't know anything about this group.

JEFFREY: Do you believe he believes in discrimination against women? I'm asking you about Judge Alito.

BEGALA: Here's what I believe: I believe he's incredibly slipper.

JEFFREY: Do you, in your heart, Paul, believe that that man is a racist? In your heart, Paul Begala, do you believe that Judge Alito is a racist?

BEGALA: I believe he's being evasive, Terry. I think he is not telling us the truth.

JEFFREY: Do you in your heart believe he's a sexist in favor of discrimination?

BEGALA: I've never met the guy. I've never met the guy. It is not for me to judge.

JEFFREY: Have you seen any hard evidence?

BEGALA: Here's the question...

BLITZER: Presumably -- presumably, some of this might or might not be cleared up if in fact Chairman Specter allows the subpoenaing of these documents, William Rusher's four boxes at the Library of Congress, the publisher of "The National Review," all of the history, all of the records, the financial records, all the minutes of the meetings and the articles of this group, CAP, Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Should the committee subpoena those documents from the Library of Congress and let Democrats and Republicans go through them? Or is this simply a fishing expedition designed to look for something that may or may not be there?

JEFFREY: Well, I think it is a side issue. I think it is a fishing expedition. I think it shows how desperate the Democrats are.

Wolf, in the last Supreme Court we had decisions decided on the commerce clause, the (INAUDIBLE) clause, and the establishment clause, tremendously controversial, divided the country. The Democrats aren't asking him anything about that.

Why? Because they know they are on the wrong side of the country from those issues.

So they are looking for anything they can cast at this man, a great integrities (ph) character. The ABA, by the way, examined these issues and said this was a man of the highest character. The Democrats who...

BLITZER: We're going to go back, but go ahead. I will give you the last word.

BEGALA: Well, here's the problem. The judge has not been giving straight answers.

If he were to say, as, say, Senator Brownback does, and other principled Republicans, as Terry Jeffrey does, on the abortion case, for example, I think Roe is wrong and should be overturned, there's millions of Americans who believe that. But he won't give us a straight answer on what's the most fundamental and controversial issue there. He is not going to give us a straight answer to the commerce clause either.

That's why they get into this other more personal stuff, like whether his alumni group was racist or not.

BLITZER: Well, we're going to leave it right there, because Senator Joe Biden is questioning Judge Alito right now on this very sensitive issue of abortion. "