Posted on 11/03/2005 9:18:49 AM PST by kingattax
DEMOCRATS are getting cold feet about starting an abortion fight over Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito because if they do, they could lose big-time in the court of public opinion. Alito backed a law requiring a woman to notify her husband before an abortion. The Supreme Court disagreed.
But Americans by a nearly 3-1 majority agree with Alito, so the fact that he might shift the court could be a plus.
In all, 72 percent of Americans favor spousal-notification laws, according to a 2003 Gallup Poll, and an equally lopsided margin thinks teens under 18 should have to tell their parents before an abortion.
Most Americans want legal abortion, but they want it more restricted. If the abortion debate centers on whether to tell parents or a husband, it's a loser for pro-choice Dems.
So some Dems want to blast Alito on machine guns he opposed a federal law barring private ownership.
But it was a narrow ruling, and the truth is, Dems seem privately resigned that Alito will be confirmed.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
An observation: Miers is gone and Alito nominated, so that is no longer an issue; Iraq has a constitution, violence appears to be down, (or at least less volatile than the left-beloved paradise that is Paris)and more elections are on the way; Gas prices are significantly lower this week than last...part of a trend that has been ongoing for several weeks; The economy is still growing despite the hurricane hit.
So that leaves them with Libby. Generally, the reaction to that from the public at large is....who? There is very little left for the left. It makes me feel so bad for them.
The Libby story is yet another one that the inside the Beltway crowd obsesses over but the rest of the country yawns about.
True, but the poster actually does kind of accidentally stumble onto a bit of truth with this one -
There is no point in saving the filibuster for a rainy day. The GOP could pull the nuclear trigger at anytime anyway. If not now, when? If not this, what? There will be no better time to take Bush on than now.
The longer they hold off on the filibuster, the more times they kick the can down the road to the next nominee, the less power that option has for them. And from their point of view, George Bush will never be as weak and vulnerable politically as he is right now.
Judging from what I've heard, so far Judge Alito is really wowing the senators in his meetings with them. These meetings and how they go are what make or break these nominations - the reason Harriet Miers had to withdraw was because she just wasn't impressing the senators, and the GOP ones went to the White House and told them she wasn't getting it done.
Alito is totally different, and just like with John Roberts, the Dims are all but wailing that there just won't be anything substantive they can sink their claws into. And all that leaves them with is the rumor-mongering, the veiled anti-Catholic and anti-Italian slurs, the attacks against his family, the "machine gun Sammy" type rulings that they can try to twist and distort and take completely out of context in an attempt to scare the public and the dredging up of Alito's undergrad writings to demonstrate that he's really a liberal in an attempt to turn conservatives against him.
At least until, and only if, they can fina an Anita Hill to come oozing out of the sewers to slime Alito with a bunch of crude innuendo. I think even the Dims realize that the chances of this are slim, and that all the stuff I outlined above is playing a seriously losing hand, trying to bluff a guy holding a straight flush into folding when all you have is a pair of deuces.
In short, if they're going to actually filibuster and not just talk about it, they almost have to do it right now.
Actually Katrina was the most efficiently handled Act of God by the Federal gummit than any other. The locals messed up the busses but most of the reporting was false. America understands the magnitude of this disaster and discount the Clubbing of Bush by ABDNC.
As for Alito, he graduated top of his class at Harvard and Princeton and will smoke the hearings. Your hero Drunk Uncle Ted had to have Papa Joe buy Harvard a Library to get Ted's degree after getting kicked out. Do you realize how big a fool he is going to be?? Enjoy the Trash Heap of History!
Pray for W and Our Troops
Practically, there is.
You can't buy a new (post-'86) one.
You can only buy one of the extremely limited supply of >20-year-old, 10x-overpriced grandfathered ones after paying a $200 tax and navigating a rediculous paper trail and soliciting the whim of a chief LEO.
Are you saying Hillary shouldn't have been charged? The prosecutor let her off, and that's a bad precedent. I'm glad Fitz isn't following it -- so that next time Hillary lies to FBI or under oath it will be clearly established that she can't get away with it.
No, I was saying I liked the second part of the link.
God, isn't it the truth. IN fact, we can have a news conference tonight held by our CIC with ideas on getting out of Iraq, immigration reform, etc., and BEFORE the ideas are even released, the Dems will be holding conferences DENOUNCING the President's plans. Chucky had his comments ready once Alito's nomination was announced, before he even met with the man!!!! The Dems don't want truth or reason. They want their way and have become quite a predictable gaggle of elitist, crybaby obstructionists! I should really buy stock in diapers and Kleenex because both industries are perpetually supported by the whining and sniveling of the Dems!
"I am starting to believe Miers was a smart move on Bush's part."
I'm starting to think you might be right. Pres. Bush may have felt that the Republican senators needed to have a fire lit under their asses, and that the base could and would do it, so he nominates Ms. Miers, a very nice but totally unknown lady to get the base all fired up to bring pressure not only on Pres. Bush (who can take it) and Ms. Miers (who as a former trial lawyer can also take it), but more importantly on the Senate, who's not used to it and will jump like a scalded cat. And it seems to have worked nicely.
Very odd logic indees. The Dems UNANIMOUSLY confirmed Alito twice before to lesser high courts. The question would be why they were fine with him repeatedly before, then have to be dragged in the extreme just to get an up/down vote.
actually I think he was 2-0-1
Next we will hear how Miers was just a 'diversion' from this administration's 'failures', Mr. Rove, etc.
What a stale mantra when you think about it.
The growing norm was to nominate people with no paper trail, because each side pounded on ANY slightly objectionable documented view. Miers has practically no paper trail, yet has the trust of the President - a rarity. Even Roberts had little support by the Right until he got to the hearings.
The Democratic Party is nothing more than a baby who cries uncontrollably.......over and over........and over and over..........
Just annoying noise, nothing else.
Yup. The more I read Leftist writings, the more I'm confused about who they're talking about. Major case of psychotic projection (accusing others of one's own flaws to re-route blame).
The Miers pick was an affirmative action selection which limited the pool of qualified candidates. Once Bush began ignoring the First Lady's and Andy Card's wishes, he stumbled upon the obvious choice -- a highly qualified male with requisite experience. This is a highly visible case that demonstrates the ineffectiveness of hiring based on quotas. Unfortunately, this nonsense goes on all the time in both the private and public sector.
It seems like all the charges the Dems put on Bush is akin to trying hold oil in your hands. Slippery and fleeting away.
Except for a few hard cases (rape, incest, severe fetal abnormality) the majority of the public opposes legal abortion. That majority is growing, and science has essentially killed the argument that abortion doesn't take a human life. The Rats will crash and burn if they make this a fight over abortion.
Very well reasoned.
Frankly, I think both Miers and Bush knew this would likely occur. What an opportunity for Bush! Alito will only get "half the crap" the Dems had planned for Miers simply because he's male and previously confirmed.
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