*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."
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.
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.