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Posted by tgl on 2005-11-01 17:25:42 +0000

O Captain! My Captain! I've been trying to be open minded about the Alito nomination, but my doubts are growing. He seems to be more conservative than Republican (the opposite from Miers), which I think is a good thing. However, he's _very_ conservative. What the hell are they up to anyway? Miers was a decoy nomination, Bush offered her up as a sacrifice, knowing the Right would revolt. The renewed fervor from the Right, the not-so-Right, and the right-of-Center will coalesce behind Alito and make it that much harder to filibuster him. -OR- Miers was the real deal. Bush is sending out Alito as if to say to those on his Right: "OK, let's see how far your Scalia-lite candidate gets". Alito might loose enough Republican senators (Chafee, Specter, et al.) to make his nomination untenable. Not that I give the Right enough credit to realize that the judges they idolize are out of touch with the American public as a whole. -OR- Bush really wanted Miers. Bush really wants Alito. Which calls into question his decision making capability (again)... how could you pick Miers over someone with the record and experience of Alito? It's not the gender card either, there are plenty of qualified female judges out there. I'm befuddled.

Posted by tgl on 2005-11-01 17:47:20 +0000

Napolitano on "big government conservative" echoes a comment from an Alito peer I heard on NPR this morning (albeit while adrift in bed), Alito has never been in private practice and has always served the government. Still more excitement from the Religiuous Right than the Thinking Right.

Posted by rladew on 2005-11-01 18:16:39 +0000

would you care to go into more detail about who / what the "thinking right" is? _______________________________

Posted by tgl on 2005-11-01 18:30:35 +0000

Reason MFGR those limeys Basically, anyone whose viewpoint is not blinkered by allegiance to the Republican Party or is overly concerned with replacing the Constitution with the Christian Bible.

Posted by tgl on 2005-11-01 18:31:16 +0000

Yeah, I made up that term about 50 minutes ago.

Posted by rladew on 2005-11-01 18:58:44 +0000

I like it. It is pretty close to those pesky Libertarians, many intellectual right wingers over there. _______________________________

Posted by tgl on 2005-11-01 19:32:58 +0000

Biggest issue though is this: The opposition can't let the "Mother of All Nomination Battles" be just that. If Alito overshadows Iraq, detainee abuses, the lost right to confront your accusers, the Plame outing, DeLay, Frist, GOP money laundering, lack of response to Katrina and out of control spending (with respect to the tax base) then it's a victory for Rove and his politics of deception.

Posted by tgl on 2005-11-01 19:59:06 +0000

OK, I'm a bit obsessed with this today. Last link, I swear. I don't think he's a home run w/r/t abortion that Gary Bauer et al. have been proclaiming. I hope he gets grilled during the hearings, however, I hope the media doesn't obsess over this for the next 2-3 months. Sept. was the deadliest month in Iraq since January. Insurgents are building better bombs everyday.

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-12 03:12:15 +0000

Drudge takes another step towards mediocrity. I saw his earlier Headline "ALITO WIFE LEAVES HEARING IN TEARS AFTER DEM ATTACK", and thought it was probably correct. But I watched the hearing sequence on PBS and Martha-Ann Bomgardner most definitely starts crying after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asks Alito, "'Are you really a closet bigot?" He has posted this, trying to support his position. Come on, Matt, what happened to you...?

Posted by tgl on 2006-01-12 13:06:07 +0000

I liked how Graham barely paused for Alito's stammered reply before launching into his loquacious adulation of the nominee. I believe Bomgardner started crying because she realized, "My God, I'm married to a bigot!"

Posted by tgl on 2006-01-12 13:12:32 +0000

From that humaneventsonline.com link, I like how Kay Daly refers to Martha-Ann Bomgardner as "Mrs. Alito".

Posted by Null Protocol on 2006-01-12 13:13:35 +0000

Ska sucks

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-12 13:28:17 +0000

Not much feminism over at 'ye olde Coalition for a Fair Judiciary', which is interesting as I'm guessing 'Kay' is a woman...

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-12 13:28:49 +0000

So does Jazz

Posted by Null Protocol on 2006-01-12 13:57:53 +0000

Ska Jazz and Belle and Sebastien now were talkin

Posted by tgl on 2006-01-12 15:04:05 +0000

Gangster Fun

Posted by buzzorhowl on 2006-01-12 19:46:04 +0000

Skandre The Giant

Posted by Null Protocol on 2006-01-13 10:59:10 +0000

Skarotum Propaghandi: "Fuck You Rudy"

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-13 11:18:03 +0000

Lieberman!!! "Senator Lieberman said that a filibuster was on the table for him." Yes! Here we go!

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-13 11:37:34 +0000

What's also becoming increasingly clear is that Alito's saying he does not recall being a member of C.A.P. (Concerned Alumni of Princeton, the group opposing women, gays and affirmative action for minorities at Princeton), is really hurting him. He put "Memeber of C.A.P." on several resumes he sent out in 1985, sometimes being the first thing listed after his Princeton graduation date. Why not come clean?

Posted by tgl on 2006-01-13 13:28:15 +0000

Don't hold your breath. Marshall Whittman is a big Lieberman supporter, however, I don't think any mover and shaker from the DLC part of the party would advocate a filibuster. I've been uncertain about the Alito nomination. I'm sort of coming around to the DLC-style viewpoint, which is to make a calculated decision on whether a filibuster of Alito would be more deterimental to regaining control of the House in 2006 or more determinental to the impact on future Supreme Court decisions. Anyone see David Brooks on Charlie Rose last night? I have to agree that the spectacle of Kennedy, Durbin, Schummer, and Biden orate endlessly did not make for a strong week for Dems in the eyes of the electorate. Especially when white, working-class Americans (who Kerry lost by 20 points in the election) identifies with the nominee. There must be a better attack than his tardy Vanguard recusal and CAP membership. (Although I think he's disingenuous on both counts). If the NSA wiretapping goes to Court, and Alito is on the bench, is there any question to whose side he'd be on? I think they should have pushed that angle. Maybe it was the media's fault, I mostly heard the other soundbites. NPR did a good bit on hammering home "stare decisis" and "unitary executive", I guess.

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-13 14:35:04 +0000

I agree to a point. Watching the hour long discussion on the C.A.P. that sent "Alito's wife" crying, I have to say that Sen. Spector came off the worst, though he's still in my top 5 GOP Senators. His tit for tat w/ Kennnedy was 2nd grade level, holding up the meeting yelling about how he was the chairmen, and then he turned out to be wrong, ala "The Office". "If the NSA wiretapping goes to Court, and Alito is on the bench, is there any question to whose side he'd be on? I think they should have pushed that angle." Who should have pushed this angle? The media? Shouldn't they try and not push any angle? The Dems on the Judiciary Committee? Of course, Alito doesn't have to answer a question that isn't even in court yet. I understand the concern, with the Scalia comparisons, and Alito will sometimes play politics from the court, but it seems moot. Lastly, one of the things Karl Rove has taught us, it is that there is no such thing as "political capitol," and tenacious attacks win. The Dems could go for the 2006 House and the filibuster. If the next nominee, seems just as willing to let Bush slide closer to dictator, filibuster. They have the Senate votes.

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-13 14:53:46 +0000

Here we don't go!

Posted by tgl on 2006-01-13 16:18:18 +0000

The Dems should have spent more time on the boundless executive power that Scalia seems to approve of. It's not clear to me that a filibuster weakens Dem candidates across the board. If it does to the extent that it makes it impossible to win control of the House this year (not that it's a lock without a "damaging" filibuster), then there needs to be a calculation over which is worse for the country: Alito on the court, or Republicans in control of the House. Alito is for life, true, but we can see how 5 years of GOP control of the Congressional and Executive branches has been (irreparably?) damaging. --- Hopefully the reign of Rovian partisanship and DeLayism is coming to an end. Brooks mentioned last night that Gingrich has had a hand in the current power struggle in the House. Another interesting topic that Brooks brought up was that America is not the old-style labor-management class warfare that the Dems (were) good at, but the stratification of society. The children of a family making $50k/yr. are much less likely to improve their class standing than the children of a familty making $90k/yr. The GOP is going to need to confront that at some point, otherwise they will never again be competitive in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc. The upward mobility of the middle class, as happened after WWII, is gone.

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-01-17 15:50:19 +0000

WashTimes, caught in a lie. "Democrats questioned Judge Alito so aggressively last week that his wife, Martha, broke into tears and left the committee room Wednesday for more than an hour."