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Re: Democrats Delay Alito[Ed Whelan  01/17 12:44 PM] Does this reason (from today's Washington Post article) that Democrats state for delaying Alito's confirmation make any political sense: Democrats, anticipating that Alito ultimately will be confirmed, are trying to deny the White House that victory as long as possible, particularly in the days before the State of the Union address President Bush is to deliver Jan. 31. Although Senate rules do not enable them to defer the confirmation vote until after the speech, Democratic senators would like to reduce the victory period immediately before the speech, one of the broadest public...

Hours before Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's confirmation hearings began Jan. 9 on Capitol Hill, Myra Myers sought a hearing of her own on the steps of the Supreme Court. She carried her message on a dark blue sign that read: "My abortion hurt me." Mrs. Myers, now 61, was 28 and married when she learned she was pregnant with her sixth child in January 1973. Just weeks after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade, her husband persuaded her to have an abortion and later reassured her, "It was the only thing that could be...

The confirmation of Samuel Alito will contribute towards a total reorganization of this form of government. The Rehnquist era started the shift of the power to the states and away from the federal government - away from the Congress, away from the federal agencies, away from the regulatory system created to protect employees, consumers, investors - the people of America The Roberts-Scalia-Alito-Thomas-Kennedy Court will not only continue the work of the Rehnquist Court and make the rightward turn more dramatic - it will also preside over the expansion of presidential powers in ways never before imagined. But even more importantly,...

SUPREME Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. was careful to avoid being too revealing at his Senate confirmation hearings, but he did answer the overriding question. He is the wrong choice to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the nation's highest court. In some ways, Alito's taciturn approach to questions about the great constitutional issues of our time was similar to that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. But the distinction between the history of the two judges -- and the role of the justice they were nominated to replace -- are important. Of the two, Alito had far...

The Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito told us more about the Senators than it did about Judge Alito.First, there were those long-winded preambles to "questions" for the judge. Then there were the Mickey Mouse maneuvers and insinuations, spiced here and there with outright lies.The ridiculousness of the charges was classically illustrated by Senator Joseph Biden's claim that Alito had been part of a group that was trying to keep minorities and women out of Princeton. Apparently wanting everyone to meet the same admissions standards is considered to be the same as being against minorities and women.To dramatize his...

Can anyone figure out why Chairman Specter agreed to postpone the vote on Alito another week? The committee already pushed back the hearings a week because of an agreement by Specter and Leahy. I thought that was the week allowed under Senate rules. Why put off the inevitable? I think Specter caved on this one, since he told the committee last week he wouldn't budge on this.

OPPOSITION Democrats have gained a one-week delay for a key Senate panel's vote on President George W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito. Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel's Republican chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, had agree to hold the vote on January 24 instead of today (local time). "I have assured Chairman Specter that no Democratic Senator will hold the matter over on January 24," Senator Leahy said. "He does not anticipate that any Republican Senator will seek to hold it over at that time." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee...

WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court on Jan. 24, officials announced Monday night, and the full Senate will begin debate the following day. In a written statement, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he looks forward to a "fair up-or-down vote" swiftly on Alito, President Bush's choice to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Alito, 55, an appeals court judge, is assured of approval in the committee, where all 10 Republicans have indicated their support. Prospects for confirmation in the full Senate are strong, as well. Democrats have not...

Ooops! We all make mistakes. But some mistakes are bigger than others. Here's an example--when a newspaper prints incorrect information. Newspapers frequently run corrections and retractions. But you usually have to search for them. Well, Regret the Error lists corrections, retractions and clarifications printed in newspapers around the country. It also includes a short commentary. Sometimes the mistakes are humorous. But I [Kim Komando] don't visit the site to gloat over others' mistakes. I read it because it makes me feel a little better about some of the mistakes I've made.

Judge Samuel Alito’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week confirmed his integrity and character. Patiently and clearly answering senators’ questions of all kinds, hour after hour, he also proved his judicial temperament. Now, as their hopes of defeating this nomination diminish, Judge Alito’s opponents are left trying to hype fake issues. One of these attacks focuses on Judge Alito’s initial failure to recuse himself in the so-called Vanguard case. It is time to set the record straight. Preserving both justice and judicial independence requires that judges avoid conflicts of interest. To that end, federal law requires that a...

Chuck Schumer reclines on the couch in his office on Capitol Hill, his stockinged feet propped up on the coffee table, a carton of takeout Chinese food perched precariously on his belly. It’s late one night a few days before the start of the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito, and Schumer is laying out the objectives of each side in the high-stakes game. For the Democrats, Schumer says, the goal of the hearings “is almost metaphysical, or epistemological: It’s to bring out the true Samuel Alito. And his job is to say as little as possible, but enough so...

I find it, as grave somber Senate Democrats like to say, "troubling". Indeed, I find it not just "troubling" but sad that a party once so good at "the politics of personal destruction" has got so bad at it. The last time they had a Supreme Court nominee to hang upside down in the Democrat bondage dungeon was the John Roberts hearings. And at least, when hatchet man Chuck Schumer professed himself "troubled" by the "fullness" of John Roberts' "heart," the crack oppo-research guys had uncovered an "inappropriate" use of the word "amigo" by Roberts back in the early Eighties.But,...

As far as congressional hearings go, the Alito confirmation hearings uncovered very little. The stage was dominated by egotistical Senators who require at least 98% of their total questioning time to be focused solely on themselves. Not surprising, and certainly no revelation. These hearings are supposedly held to help the public and the Senate understand the nominee better so as to make a more educated decision on his confirmation. But these important hearings have become nothing more than street carnivals and special interest rallies.

Washington—Despite making Samuel Alito’s wife cry, Senate Democrats plan a filibuster bloodbath. The unrelenting force—led by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts—is largely said to be in defense of abortion and the federal judiciary. A meeting, tapped for Wednesday, January 18, 2005, will allow Democrats plenty of time to go through transcript records and dig up more dirt on Alito. The ease at which Alito cruised through confirmation hearings left Democrats and mainstream Americans reeling at the poor job Congress has done. Congress’ record has been mired as of late, allowing illegal phone tapping by a Bush administration that has...

Ted Kennedy told fellow Democrat Charles Schumer to "take the lead” in the grilling of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And the congressman from New York could parlay his prominent position on the committee into what Washington insiders say is his ultimate goal: The Senate Democratic leadership position. On the Thursday before the confirmation hearings began, Schumer gave a speech outlining the Democrats’ plan for questioning Alito. A few hours earlier, Kennedy had done the same. But Kennedy’s briefing "had not gone well,” a report in New York Magazine reveals. "Kennedy, looking tired and haggard,...

****Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee made the boobs on "Gilligan's Island" look like geniuses. Joseph Briglia Toms River, N.J. ****........the wrong person came out of the water that fateful night in Chappaquiddick. This multimillionaire, who gave the Kopechne family a pittance to go away, has the nerve to question the integrity of a decent man. The Democrats should hang their heads in shame to have a guy like him represent them in these hearings. Chris Michaels Morganville **** Again the Democrats show how easy it is for them to make fools of themselves. The hearings on Alito were a...

"I do not see a likelihood of a filibuster," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and often a swing vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee."

Michael Barone and John Leo, two writers I greatly admire , noticed as I did the contempt the Democratic elite displayed for Judge Alito, who, it seemed to me, is the very sort of person who until the 1960’s represented the party’s base. Barone notes that divide is most evident at our most intellectually corrupt institutions—the universities. He thus, confirms the disconnect Judge Alito felt when he traveled the 12 miles from home to Princeton : Our universities today have become our most intellectually corrupt institutions. University administrators must lie and deny that they use racial quotas and preferences in...

All that strategy proved was that Democrats had no clue about the role of a "loyal opposition" in American politics, and that their time in the wilderness had come none too soon. Not only did both parties use federal bench appointments in three successive election cycles -- each one won by the GOP -- but obstructionists such as Tom Daschle lost their seats on that issue alone. Elections have consequences. So does the kind of McCarthyite smear jobs the Democrats attempted this week with Alito as part of its strategy to attack George Bush by ruining the reputation of his...

Whatever happens with Judge Alito, Schumer is likely the Democratic winner. It’s all part of his secret plan for senatorial domination. Chuck Schumer reclines on the couch in his office on Capitol Hill, his stockinged feet propped up on the coffee table, a carton of takeout Chinese food perched precariously on his belly. It’s late one night a few days before the start of the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito, and Schumer is laying out the objectives of each side in the high-stakes game. For the Democrats, Schumer says, the goal of the hearings “is almost metaphysical, or epistemological: It’s...