Bush: Judge Samuel Alito is new choice for Supreme Court nominee

Fox News ^

[TSchmereL]

When the truth becomes known, we will thank Harriet Miers for the nomination of Samuel Alito. Harriet Miers always gave the President such excellent advice.

[righttackle44]

"Not the gutless RINO 7, though Lindsey Grahm sure seems pretty conservative. Is he really a RINO? If so, he sure talks a good game. 8)"

I heard one of his constituents say on the radio
today that when he concurred with the bandit gang
of 14, his consituency really blistered his backside
with e-mails, phone calls and letters. Said he see
seemed to respond well to it--thinks he's think a
lot before doing something stupid again.

By the way, your 8) looks like Mr. Magoo. LOL.

(I have not served. My tagline honors my son and my cousin.)

[MNJohnnie]

Happy Scalitoween Bahbah!

[ekwd]

Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to name just two. I was not blaming conservatives and apologize if I misled you. I was blaming the people who got us into the war, then turned on and cut off support to a regime we had promised to help. I am very much afraid that we are in the process of handing the conduct of U.S. foreign and defense policy back to the Dem's and that has been a disastrous thing to do for more than 35 years.

[Bahbah]

Same to you, Johnnie. A very good day over all.

[righttackle44]

"FREEP!"

Did so with great gusto. Thanks for
letting me know.

[fatnotlazy]

The addition of Alito would make Kennedy the swing vote on the court. We still need one more solid conservative to swing the court favorably to the right.

***

Ok, now which Judge can we "retire" to make room for this solid conservative?

[p23185]

I think this is more of a sign that Frum, Specter and many others really don't see Roe ever being overturned. Many judges who feel that Roe was flawed still see it as settled law. Their take on Alito may be that even though he is pro-life, he still wouldn't overturn Roe.

I disagree - Roe vs. Wade won't be overturned immediately, but with him on the court we can ship away at totally overturning it. We start with outlawing partial-birth abortion, parental notification laws, etc.

[Calif Conservative]

*Then again, RINO Specter is making favorable comments too...a bit shocking given Specter's adoration of Roe v. Wade.*

Above all, Sen. Specter is pro-pork. Judge Alito is from Pennsylvania -- Specter's state. The senior senator from Philly won't stand in the way of a thoroughly qualified judge from Pennsylvania.

With Alito, Bush not only made a great pick -- a conservative judge who won't be swayed by the D.C. intelligentsia -- but it was politically astute as well.

My conspiracy theory: Bush, with Miers' consent (since she still has the same job as before to help find judges), cooked up her nomination as a way to get a relatively young, yet experienced and tried-and-true originalist on the court.

Bush to the conservative activists: "You didn't like Miers? Here's somebody you'd better fight for."

Bush to the liberals: "Go ahead and try to Bork this true conservative. This isn't the 1980s. We've got the right-wing blogsphere and talk radio this time."

Bush to the DemoRAT Senators: "If you try to fight with that super-majority B.S., you lose the filibuster and get ready to say hello to future Supreme Court justices Miguel Estrada, Emilio Garza, Janice Rodgers Brown and/or Priscilla Owens."

Bush to the fence-sitting Red State Democrats: "Tom Daschle."

Bush to the RINOs: "I'm in a budget cutting mode, because I don't have to worry about re-election. Susan, Olympia, if you give me any trouble, I might find a lot of excess pork in Maine."

Bush to Specter: "Alito is from Pennsylvania, Arlen. So are you. So sit down, shut up, schedule those hearings and get Alito on the SCOTUS."

[Clintonfatigued]

Wow, Bush really showed courage in this nomination. I didn't think he'd do it. But there's no doubt that Alito is eminently qualified and, based on what's known about him, is deserving of confirmation.

As for questions about his views, he's entitled to the same courtesy and leeway that Ruth Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer received.

[demlosers]

Thanks for the info. It's good to see Specter is on board.

[Clintonfatigued]

Alito is nicknamed "Scalito" not only for his views, but for his very similar biography. Compare Sam Alito's biography to his fellow Italian Catholic New Jersey native Antonin Scalia's biography.

[NeoCaveman]

Bush to the fence-sitting Red State Democrats: "Tom Daschle."

I wonder when Ben Nelson (D-NE) runs out to the press to praise Alito. It shouldn't be long now. He was quick with the praise for both Nelson and Miers.

[publiusF27]

Alito looks pretty good to me!

Was United States v. Lopez, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1624, 131 L.Ed.2d 626 (1995), a constitutional freak? Or did it signify that the Commerce Clause still imposes some meaningful limits on congressional power?

...

In other words, the majority argues in effect that the private, purely intrastate possession of machine guns has a substantial effect on the interstate machine gun market. This theory, if accepted, would go far toward converting Congress's authority to regulate interstate commerce into "a plenary police power." Lopez, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1633. If there is any sort of interstate market for a commodity--and I think that it is safe to assume that there is some sort of interstate market for practically everything--then the purely intrastate possession of that item will have an effect on that market, and outlawing private possession of the item will presumably have a substantial effect. Consequently, the majority's theory leads to the conclusion that Congress may ban the purely intrastate possession of just about anything.

...

The activity that the Lopez Court found was not "economic" or "connected with a commercial transaction" was a type of intrastate firearm possession, i.e., the possession of a firearm (including a machine gun) within a school zone. At issue here is another type of purely intrastate firearm possession, i.e., the purely intrastate possession of a machine gun. If the former must be regarded as non-economic and non-commercial, why isn't the same true of the latter? Is possession of a machine gun inherently more "economic" or more "commercial" than possession of other firearms? [Footnote 4] Is the possession of a firearm within a school zone somehow less "economic" and "commercial" than possession elsewhere--say, on one's own property? [Footnote 5] If there are distinctions of constitutional dimension here, they are too subtle for me to grasp.

[muawiyah]

Look, this is the first nominee "W"'s made that I've criticized.

Roberts was OK, and I understand full well the theological underpinnings of Ms. Miers and trusted her to rule consistently with a high moral standard.

This guy, though, Alito, has never had a real job and knows nothing of business or capitalist endeavor.

The probability of this guy turning into another Kennedy are very high.

[JeffAtlanta]

Bush to the conservative activists: "You didn't like Miers? Here's somebody you'd better fight for."

LOL - entertaining conspiracy theory. I think the above text would be more accurate if it were...

Conservative base to Bush: "Miers was a terrible pick. Stop enacting the liberal agenda and calling it a victory. We'll stand strong behind you if you pick a known quantity with an actual judicial record to analyze, but if you don't we're going to make you do it over until you get it right.

Bush to the RINOs: "I'm in a budget cutting mode, because I don't have to worry about re-election. Susan, Olympia, if you give me any trouble, I might find a lot of excess pork in Maine."

This would be more like...

Conservative base to Red State RINOs and Bush: We're tired the big government bill of good that you've sold us in the name of compassionate conservatism. Cut the spending and act like fiscal conservatives or it's going to be a long three years.

[muawiyah]

Alito even sounds like Chucky Schumer ~ gad!

[JeffAtlanta]

The probability of this guy turning into another Kennedy are very high.

If Alito has a long judicial track record of being an originalist and not just a conservative leaning judicial activist then we are ok.

Conventional wisdom is that Kennedy had stellar credentials but I have to really doubt that. I have strong suspicions that he was just a judicial activist that just happened to have some conservative friendly rulings.

[muawiyah]

Look, it's up to real RTL judges to figure out every which way that is possible that a decision regarding killing babies ploughs new ground and is not subject to stare decisis.

Otherwise, that judge dips his spear in the blood of the innocent.

It's one of the reasons we really should not be nominating any current judges who have ever had a RTL case to the USSC.