Posted on 01/13/2006 12:28:23 PM PST by new yorker 77
WASHINGTON -- Judge Samuel Alito emerged largely unscathed Thursday from three days of tough questioning by Senate Democrats and appeared poised for confirmation as the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice, with the future direction of the court in the balance.
Alito, who would replace key moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, withstood days of pointed questions by Senate Democrats focused on issues related to abortion, presidential power and civil rights. If confirmed, he could hold the critical vote in those areas, but he did not reveal how he would decide such cases.
Democrats had researched 15 years of Alito's decisions as a federal appeals court judge--and his lengthy record as a lawyer in the Reagan administration--but they failed to unearth any tidbits or elicit any comments that might seriously impede his confirmation.
Instead, it was Alito who set the tone of the hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, engaging senators in conversation and calmly answering questions. Democrats, who came ready for battle and were determined to portray Alito as a rigid ideologue, seemed to lose heart by Thursday morning.
Beginning with a deeply personal statement Monday, in which he talked of growing up the son of an Italian immigrant in working-class New Jersey, Alito presented himself as Everyman.
Rumpled and a bit slouched, he lacked the polish of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. during his September confirmation hearings, but senators on both sides of the aisle conceded he was a highly effective witness in his own way.
In dispassionate language, Alito fielded more than 700 questions over 18 hours of testimony. Most were on abortion and presidential power, as Democrats had warned going in.
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(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
The Dems couldn't rattle a rattle.
Even after they spent a week demonizing the guy....
The Dems couldn't rattle a rattle...LOLROTF
"but senators on both sides of the aisle conceded he was a highly effective witness in his own way..."No kidding!!! Was Judge Alito considered some of the brilliant mind in constitutional law besides Scalia on conservative side? Any doubt. SIGH...
I called Roberts - "The Teflon Bork".
You would think that at some point even the media would realise something is wrong when they lead their articles with things like "he emerged unscathed". Is that the point of a hearing, to scathe the nominee?
Rumpled and a bit slouched, he lacked the polish of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.
I love the fact that he appeared more ordinary. Much was made of this when he was nominated, he was clumsy, etc. Nobody would ever guess that he was such a mental and legal powerhouse. Can't wait to see him team up with Roberts. It'll be like Marshall and Story.
IMHO, the dims(especially Kennedy)caused more damage to any imagined claims they may have had to credibility and moral standing than to Alito.
I know a bunch of libs of long standing who are almost too embarrased by that sorry performance to speak.
It's kind of strange, not hearing those same old bumper stickers regurgitated into my ear...........but I'll take it.
Oh just give it up. Bush more than made up for Meier with the supremely qualified Alito. They can't touch him. He will be confirmed. Anything they do now is just pandering to their leftists constituents.
Expecting the media to find a problem with the purpose of these hearings being to destroy a conservative nominee would be like expecting a fish to have a problem with the purpose of water being to make you wet.
Yes!
And who know? Maybe some of these dims will lose their re-elections. They were pitiful, and I'm sure did not represent their constituents well, if at all.
So will Alito be the "cast iron" Bork?
I hate to break it to the reporter but those 'rats all lost heart and soul long before Thursday morning ... if they ever had them to begin with.
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