on January 4, 2006. www.abanet.org/scfedjud/alito.html This is congruent with his "well qualified" rating when he was nominated for the Court of Appeals.
Nosborne, What excuse(s) do you think we'll see for the "extraordinary circumstances" obstructionism that is sure to come?
Today I heard one of the pundits compare him to Archie Bunker. That might give you an idea which way this is going. Big surprise, huh?
Sound and fury, signifying nothing. I don't expect a filibuster. Judge Alito is far from being an outrageous choice. He's no Thomas or Scalia. He is, in fact, a very GOOD choice almost no matter HOW you look at him. But he's a LAWYER'S choice, I think. The public won't really understand and neither side of the aisle will find it worthwhile to educate us. The ultra Right will vote to confirm in order to be seen supporting "our President" while avoiding being too closely identified with an increasingly controversial Administration. The moderate GOP Senators will vote quitely to confirm because they are largely about good government and Judge Alito is an example of merit in high office. The Democrats will bluster and fume in order to placate the increasing thirst for Administration blood amongst our rank-and-file. They won't attempt a filibuster, though, because they won't have the moderate GOP votes to win this one and so would face the nuclear option for no good reason. Besides, most of them probably, secretly think that Judge Alito is as good as it's likely to get. They're right.
