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Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III last night condemned what he termed the vicious attacks by left-leaning groups and legislators against judicial nominees who favor judicial restraint. "Since 2001, the attacks on judges who are faithful to the Constitution have been systematic, prolonged and particularly vicious," he charged. Meese made his remarks during an appearance at the University of Richmond, presented by the Federalist Society of the T.C. Williams School of Law. He told an attentive crowd of about 100 that the recent hearings for John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. to be justices of the...

The phony drama of Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation has at last staggered to its foregone conclusion. Judge Alito is now Justice Alito. What are we to make of it? First, as they almost always have done for the past 26 years, Republicans have again outmaneuvered the Democrats. And that is what is really important to both sides, not whether the judge deserves the position. Using his tried-and-true playbook, President Bush first controlled the process, then set the criteria for approval, and then controlled the semantics. The latter was accomplished, as always, at the start, when Judge Alito was described as...

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006 12:22 p.m. EST Alec Baldwin Blasts 'Chicken-Bleep' Dems Print Friendly Version Forward this Page E-mail NewsMax RSS Feed Reprint Information Hollywood Democrat Alec Baldwin is blasting his party's Senators for failing to block Samuel Alito confirmation to the Supreme Court, saying he's appalled that Sen. Ted Kennedy and other liberals could muster only 25 of the 41 votes needed mount a successful filibuster. The problem is there are too many "chicken-bleep Democrats in the Senate," the agitated actor told the New York Daily News. "We have a bunch of budding Zell Millers down there," he complained,...

On the night of Sunday, Oct. 30, the White House team charged with getting Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s nomination through the Senate got a first look at the nominee. The meeting was held in the office of White House counsel Harriet Miers, who three days earlier was forced to withdraw her own name from consideration for the Supreme Court after withering attacks from the president's conservative allies. Without knowing Alito, Steve Schmidt, a top aide to Vice President Cheney designated to coordinate the nomination, and former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie, who was helping him, knew that Alito...

The 58-42 vote for Judge Samuel Alito to be the 110th Supreme Court Justice could very well culminate in a detrimental change in the role and operation of the Supreme Court. Progressives think that this is because Justice Alito will replace the so-called swing vote of moderate Justice Sandra Day 0’Connor. No, the risk is that the bitter partisanship associated with his confirmation could undermine the Court’s independence and authority.

BUSTED! We have (another) NY Times and MSM fabrication moment! Southack, in reply 139 in the thread "Alito: Two Nominee Strategies. One Worked." pointed out this made-up quote by the NY Times: "What that means on television sets where the American people are watching this is, you look good and they look bad. It was the central operating premise." This is a fabricated "quote" that CANNOT be real: the tense of the supposed "White House" source changes in mid-breathe. IT CAN'T HAVE BEEN SAID THIS WAY. Does it matter? Sure. The whole article attacks the White House (Rowe, in other...

The Senate's vote Tuesday to confirm Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O’Connor is — along with President Bush’s victory on Chief Justice John Roberts — the biggest domestic victory of his two terms as president.

Wouldn't you like to see Judge Alito and Chief Justice Roberts questioning the Democrat Senators to determine their qualifications for Public office? Just imagine matching the IQs of the Senators and the Judges! The questions might go like this............................. Judge Alito (JA): "Senator Kennedy, I see from your official resume that you attended Harvard University..." Senator Kennedy (SK): "Yes, your honor, I certainly did." JA: "Did you graduate?" SK: "Your honor, I respectfully ask that you not pry into my personal life..." JA: "Is it not true that you were expelled from Harvard for violating the honor code, to wit,...

In the game of poker it is called “Tilting”. This is when constant losing has finally gotten the better of a player. At this point they abandon every instinct towards strategy and good play in favor of being really, really mad. Usually tilting results in betting the mortgage when all you are packing is a lousy pair of 5’s and a big chip on your shoulder. Back in the glory days of liberal politics, Democrats would openly deny that there was a litmus test for the Supreme court while making the confirmation hearings about fictional claims of racism, class warfare,...

Democrats didn't make their case on Alito, Obama says BY JEFF ZELENY Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said he would vote Monday to filibuster Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court, but he conceded the effort would be futile and criticized Democrats for failing to persuade Americans to take notice of the court's changing ideological face. "The Democrats have to do a much better job in making their case on these issues," Obama said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week." "These last-minute efforts - using procedural maneuvers inside the Beltway - I think has been the...

On 12 January, 2006, the New York Times ran an article entitled “Thrust into the Limelight, and for Some A Symbol of Washington’s Bite.” It was a mini-biography of Mrs. Martha-Ann Alito, and it purported to explain the reasons for Mrs. Alito’s tears during her husband Samuel’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It blamed them on a follow-up question by Senator Lindsay Graham, rather than on the verbal savaging of Judge Alito by the Democrats on the Committee, led by Senator Ted Kennedy. The Times should have gotten the story right, because one of the three reporters on...

There may be a more disgusting, nauseating spectacle than Teddy Kennedy sitting in judgment on a Supreme Court nominee’s ethics and integrity, but I’m not sure what this might be. But, there he was on national TV, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking his questions and making his points with all the skills of Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Kennedy among other things: — Was suspended from Harvard because of cheating when he was caught getting another student to take a Spanish test for him. — Had his father get his Army duty changed to two years from the...

Apparently, C-Span has been editing its coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Alito nomination. Here's the tape they don't want you to see. At this time the Chair recognizes the senator from Delaware - Senator Biden.     I'll be with you shortly.     Senator, this committe is in session, so if you're not prepared, we'll come back to you later.     Just hold on, I think I'm almost done.     I'd like to remind my good friend that we don't have time to wait for him while he...     And I'd like to remind my good friend that the American people want...

Now that the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito are over, what did we learn? That a nominee for the high court won’t answer questions he’s not supposed to answer? Or that liberals will then use those non-answers as a public rationale for opposition? We did learn (again) that televised Senate Judiciary Committee hearings featuring the questioning of a nominee have outlived their usefulness, if such usefulness ever truly existed. We also learned (again) what the left values and opposes in a judicial nominee. We learned that they hold results to be more important than old fashioned notions...

The pictures said it all. First was the shot of the unflappable judge, serenely gazing…waiting…hoping…that senator Joe Biden would finally get around to asking his question. Then the unforgettable image of judge Alito’s wife Martha-Ann, gasping at the accusation that her husband was a closet racist. And at the end of it all, there was Teddie Kennedy, his contorted face reduced to a helpless, choleric rage. Richard Durbin buried his brow in his hands. And poor Dianne Feinstein – she looked like she had just returned from a back-alley encounter with a pack of mating wildebeests. Much of the Judiciary...

Democrats don't need hearings Jan 23, 2006 by Kay Daly Judging from the microseconds between President Bush’s announcement of Samuel Alito to be the next Supreme Court Justice and the hysterical howls from the multitude of leftist organizations in the quickly formed anti-Alito chorus, it is clear that no matter how Judge Alito performed in the hearings, the Left would not be remotely interested in a fair confirmation process. It has been this way since the beginning of the Bush administration. President Bush’s hand was barely off the Bible in his first term when liberal legal activists, such as Abner...

Good morning, to all you political junkies. Today, at 9:30 am EST, the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to vote on the nomination of Samuel Alito be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. If you're around, make a fresh pot of coffee, and join us for the show.....

The bitingly contentious U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito are causing some senators to question the validity of the process. With Alito having answered 700 questions in 3 1/2 days last week, the 18-member panel is expected to confirm him Tuesday and forward his nomination to the full Senate in Washington. A filibuster is not foreseen. Sen. John Cornyn, a former state district judge in San Antonio and former Texas Supreme Court judge, said last Tuesday the episode was "a new low, not only because it was virtually unprecedented but also because it reflected a...

The following is Sen. Tom Coburn's (R.-Okla.) opening statement at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Judge Alito, welcome. I know you're tired of this and I'll try to be as brief as possible. One of the advantages of going last is to be able to hear what everybody else has said. And as I've listened today, we've talked about the unfortunate, the frail. The quotes have been "fair shake for those that are underprivileged." We've heard "values, strong, free and fair, progressive judiciary." We've heard "the vulnerable, the more vulnerable, the weak, those who suffer."...

Perhaps the most revealing and underreported exchange during Judge Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearings began when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) tried to pin Alito down on whether Roe v. Wade is so powerful as to be a permanent fixture in our constitutional jurisprudence. Alito noted that the precedent in Roe, while important, “is not an inexorable command.” Feinstein’s sophisticated Roe radar went off. Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, you see, once used this exact phrase in arguing for Roe’s reversal. Feinstein concluded that Alito had sent a subtle signal that he would vote to overturn the constitutional underpinning to abortion. Feinstein...

Pressure may drive Dems to filibuster Alito vote January 22, 2006 BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Pressure from liberal activists to oppose confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court has been so intense that Democratic senators may be trapped into a filibuster that they do not want to wage. Despite the consensus that Alito performed well in his confirmation hearings, leaders of liberal organizations opposing him -- Ralph Neas, Nan Aron and Wade Henderson -- demand that Democrats vote against him. Consequently, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is the only Democrat at this writing who has announced in...

If Judge Samuel Alito Jr.'s confirmation hearings lacked drama, apart from his wife's bizarrely over-covered crying jag, it is because they confirmed the obvious. Judge Alito is exactly the kind of legal thinker President Bush wants on the Supreme Court. He has a radically broad view of the president's power, and a radically narrow view of Congress's power. He has long argued that the Constitution does not protect abortion rights. He wants to reduce the rights and liberties of ordinary Americans, and has a history of tilting the scales of justice against the little guy. As senators prepare to vote...

"We shot our wad. We filibustered 10 guys, and at the end of the day the worst got on anyway," says a former Judiciary Committee counsel. "If we had not used the filibuster and pissed off the Republicans over the past four years, if it was seriously being entertained for the first time [against Alito], we might have succeeded.".......There are any number of ways to fault the performance of Senate Democrats in their campaign to keep Samuel Alito Jr. -- seemingly as rock-ribbed a conservative as you'll find -- off the high court. During Alito's weeklong confirmation hearings, Senate Judiciary...

Alito hearings

Thoughts on the decline of the liberal media monopoly and the future of the GOP. I don't think Democrats understand that the Alito hearings were, for them, not a defeat but an actual disaster. The snarly tone the senators took with a man most Americans could look at and think, "He's like me," and the charges they made--You oppose women and minorities, you only like corporations and not the little guy--went nowhere. Once those charges would have taken flight, would have launched, found their target and knocked down any incoming Republican. Not any more. It's over.Eleven years ago the Democrats...

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on Thursday said he plans to vote against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito because the judge is "itching to overturn Roe v. Wade." Kennedy explained his position on Alito's confirmation, which is expected sometime next week, during a speech to the liberal Center for American Progress. The group, founded by John Podesta, who served as the chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, opposes Alito's confirmation because it fears Alito would cause "a profound shift in the ideological balance of the Court." Kennedy summed up liberal talking points against Alito, touching on several aspects of...

I have an interesting tidbit of information to share. My old college roommate's mother is friends with Judge Alito's mother. They go to the same church in Roseland, New Jersey. Well, the judge's mother shared something with her that hasn't been in the papers and may bring a different perspective to those tears Alito's wife shed in the hearing. It seems Judge Alito's wife (the former Martha-Ann Bomgardner) has had personal reasons to dislike Senator Kennedy since long before Splash's shameful treatment of her husband. Long ago, the Senator was also less than kind to girl whose family was friends...

“Sen. Salazar is nothing more than a partisan pawn who is simply toting the party line of the extreme liberals within his party. The excuses he offers for opposing Judge Alito’s confirmation are transparent and reek of partisan politics. Sen. Salazar claims that he thinks Alito will move the court ‘out of the mainstream of American law’ – to Salazar I say, this vote is certainly out of the mainstream of the Colorado voters. This sort of liberal behavior makes me wonder if Sen. Salazar remembers which voters he represents – liberal Massachusetts’ or Colorado’s?

WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy indicated yesterday he will oppose Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, saying the conservative judge is "itching" to outlaw abortion and would fail to oversee a power-hungry president. "His record just does not show a judge who is committed to equal justice under law," Kennedy said in a speech at the Center for American Progress, adding that he "fervently" hopes the Senate will reject Alito's nomination. The Judiciary Committee -- composed of 10 Republicans and eight Democrats, including Kennedy -- is poised to cast a vote Tuesday that would send Alito's confirmation to...

Leahy, Salazar and Max Baucus of Montana — who announced his opposition to Alito on Wednesday — were three of the 22 Democrats who voted for Roberts' confirmation as the replacement for the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a conservative.

The following is the text of an email I received today in reply to some "suggested questions" for Judge Alito that I had kindly sent to the Senator from Massachusetts several weeks ago. The tenor of this missive is clearly aimed at the fringe element of his party, but it illustrates the apparent inability of the dems to come up with a truthful cogent argument against this candidate. ---------------------------------- Last week, Samuel Alito had the opportunity to answer the numerous and troubling questions about his record. Regrettably, he chose diversion over candor - and left the Senate Judiciary committee with...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

 THE HEARINGS on John Roberts's and Sam Alito's nominations to the Supreme Court featured a Latin phrase most people hear only in connection with Supreme Court confirmations: stare decisis. Stare decisis is the legal doctrine holding that in general, an issue once decided should stay decided, and not be revisited. This exchange between Judge Alito and Senator Arlen Specter, near the beginning of Alito's testimony, was one of many similar colloquies:  SPECTER: In Casey, the joint opinion said, quote, "People have ordered their thinking and lives around Roe. To eliminate the issue of reliance would be detrimental."  Now, that states,...

Today: January 18, 2006 at 5:26:11 PST Democrat Nelson Says He'll Back Alito ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska on Tuesday became the first Democrat to announce he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Nelson, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, said in a statement that he had made up his mind to support Alito "because of his impeccable judicial credentials, the American Bar Association's strong recommendation and his pledge that he would not bring a political agenda to the court." The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote next Tuesday...

“Heads Need To Roll”   Some on the left are a tad upset that the Democrats have not been able to stop the President’s Supreme Court nominees.   This is just that much more evidence of why there needs to be a major blood-letting in the Democratic party, and soon. Heads need to roll. ROLL. People need to lose their jobs, en masse. After 2000, no one took responsibility. After 2004, no one took responsibility. And now it’s happening again. Our wonderful party leaders are sitting back and scratching their heads wondering why the country isn’t simply running into...

Confirm Alito to the court The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr. have been a remarkable tutorial -- not in the law but in just how low partisan politics have sunk. Democrats have painted Alito as someone ready to turn back the clock 50 years on civil, reproductive and workers' rights. They have attempted to draw a public portrait of Alito, sometimes relying on half- truths, that those who know him best barely recognize. Republicans responded to this onslaught with a slew of softball questions designed not to elicit information but to present the nominee...

Listen While You Freep! Five channels, five programs every day and each one playing for 24 hours and on weekends so tune in when it’s convenient for YOU! Call In Number - 866-884-TALK (8255) Heating the EDGE of a New Media! 1pm est- The Daly Report : Want to know the REAL story of what went on behind the scenes at the Alito hearings? Tired of the spin of the press.....want to find out what Ted Kennedy and his staff were plotting behind the scenes? What were the left-wing organizations up to in "Spin Alley" outside of the hearing room?...

Throughout Judge Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearings last week, Republican senators proclaimed their opposition to “judicial activism” and their support for “judicial restraint” and “strict constructionism” (and implied their support for Judge Alito largely on that basis). For example, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, told Alito, “You have a record as a brilliant but modest jurist … who exercises restraint.” Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., asked Alito, “Are you a strict constructionist?” One can hear echoes in these statements of President Bush’s campaign pledge to nominate “strict constructionists” and “judges in the mold of Scalia and Thomas” for Supreme Court vacancies. But he...

Court nominee Samuel Alito has the confirmation vote of at least one Senate Democrat but several other Democrats said Wednesday they had lingering questions about the nominee and will vote against him. Before Senate Democrats met to discuss the nomination, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., emerged from a morning meeting with Alito and said he would vote against President Bush's Supreme Court nominee as too far outside the mainstream of judicial thinking. "He's just not right for Montana, he's just not right for America," Baucus said. "He's very polished and he answered all of the questions I was going to ask....

The invective spouted by the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats during Judge Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearing for appointment to the Supreme Court was incredible. The Democrats, on orders from their feminist ringmasters, did anything they could to tarnish Alito’s record. Since they could not condemn Alito’s competence, they did what liberals normally do: spew ad hominems. They implied Alito is a racist, sexist, homophobe, who wants an imperial presidency and will condemn the working person to a life of poverty. Their proof? They had nothing except distortions of Alito’s record. One of the more egregious misrepresentations was Alito’s membership in a...

A few days ago, Sen. Frist said that — if Democrats delay the Alito nomination past January 20 — then Frist would cancel the week-long recess that was scheduled to begin soon thereafter. Senate Democrats have now decided to delay past January 20 (contrary to a previous agreement), and so the Washington Post reports: Frist announced that … he would cancel a week-long Senate vacation next week — a step that he took yesterday, according to his chief of staff, Eric Ueland. Ueland said last night that Frist planned to start debate over Alito in the full Senate on Jan....

So many people have been saying that, since Alito's confirmation hearings are over and he survived it without throwing a tantrum or a water glass, it's a done deal. It's not. In order to win his seat on the Supreme Court, he still has to win the votes of a majority of the US Senate. Now, this is all completely obvious. But reading some of the defeatism out there, you'd think that he already has. At The Nation, Bruce Shapiro explains why it is so important that Democrats do not give up fighting against the Alito confirmation. Essentially, there is...

In his opening statement to the Judiciary Committee, Judge Samuel Alito told the senators where he comes from. First, Hamilton Township, N.J., the modest-income suburb of Trenton, where he grew up. "It was a warm, but definitely an unpretentious, down-to-earth community. Most of the adults in the neighborhood were not college graduates. I attended the public schools. In my spare time, I played baseball and other sports with my friends. And I have happy memories and strong memories of those days, and good memories of the good sense and the decency of my friends and my neighbors," he said. All...

Consider the narrative line for Samuel Alito's life. It's perfect. He comes from a white ethnic community that valued family, tradition, patriotism and the Democratic Party. By the time he arrived at Princeton, an outsider in a high-status student body where Catholics were still rare, the cultural revolution was under way and the most strident of the '60s people were acting like swine (“very privileged people behaving irresponsibly,” as he politely put it). He found their values alien. As columnist David Brooks wrote last week in the New York Times: “The liberals had 'Question Authority' bumper stickers; the ethnics had...

Senate Democrats have scrapped a "good-faith" agreement they made two months ago to allow the Judiciary Committee to vote today on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. "This is a new low in our confirmation process," said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican. "Not only because it is virtually unprecedented, but also because it reflects a breach of trust." According to Judiciary Committee rules, either party can stall a nomination in committee for only one week, meaning that Judge Alito's nomination will likely be approved by the panel during an executive committee meeting next Tuesday. The entire...

A year after Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination was scuttled by the Senate, federal prosecutor Samuel Alito called Bork "one of the most outstanding nominees of the century.'' Eighteen years later, the comment must have seemed like a godsend to Democrats hoping to paint Alito as a reactionary unsuited for the high court. But when a senator confronted him with his words, Alito said he had only been expressing admiration for Bork, and loyalty to the administration that appointed them both. He insisted he wasn't endorsing Bork's views on topics such as abortion, voting rights and presidential power. It was...

WASHINGTON (Jan. 17) - Sen. Edward Kennedy, who criticized Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's past membership in a controversial Princeton University alumni club, severed his ties Tuesday with a former Harvard college social club that bans women members. "He has decided to be taken off their rolls, believing that it is a mistake to continue to be affiliated," Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said in a statement. The Massachusetts Democrat, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, grilled Alito during Senate confirmation hearing last week about Alito's ties to the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, an alumni group that opposed the admission...

(CNSNews.com) - As announced last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to meet today -- Tuesday -- to vote on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. But it's not going to happen as planned. Despite protests from Republicans, Democrats on the committee have pushed back the Judiciary Committee vote by one week, to Tuesday, Jan. 24, invoking their right to do so under Senate rules

An indication of the corruption of a nation's political integrity and quite possibly its existence simply is the degree to which its constitutional jurisprudence is relegated to "opinion" or uncertainty. Constitutional law, a republic's founding and fundamental jurisprudence, is predicated on certainty. This is not the least important, related aspect of our tragic confusion about Applied Science as Certainty, and all else as Uncertain. I ask that readers who are not clear about this matter to take note of this "problem" as you read about "jurisprudence and certainty" here. Certainty in constitutional matters arises from fidelity to the meaning of...

Alito Hearings: The confirmation hearings on Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court were striking for their dissimilarity from last year's confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John Roberts. 1) Alito lacked the rhetorical polish of Roberts, but matched his intellectual rigor. His style was earthy and solid, well suited to his career as an appeals judge who has labored in the trenches for 15 years. His calm explanations of the law were dull at times, but for the most part, he was clear and he did not equivocate. 2) Alito went well beyond the minimum requirements of the so-called...