Posted on 01/18/2006 11:07:58 AM PST by areafiftyone
Court nominee Samuel Alito has the confirmation vote of at least one Senate Democrat but several other Democrats said Wednesday they had lingering questions about the nominee and will vote against him.
Before Senate Democrats met to discuss the nomination, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., emerged from a morning meeting with Alito and said he would vote against President Bush's Supreme Court nominee as too far outside the mainstream of judicial thinking.
"He's just not right for Montana, he's just not right for America," Baucus said. "He's very polished and he answered all of the questions I was going to ask. There is just a little too much inconsistency."
Baucus said he is concerned that Alito leans toward giving too much power to the executive branch and has wavered on the right to privacy. He said he was also concerned about Alito's membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, which discouraged the admission of women and minorities at the Ivy League school.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., also said she would vote against Alito. "I have a lot of unanswered questions," Mikulski told reporters after attending the swearing-in of new Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. Alito's eventual confirmation appears assured. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote next Tuesday on Alito's nomination to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often casts the swing vote on controversial cases. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has announced that debate on the nomination will begin in the full Senate on Jan. 25.
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, announced Tuesday in a statement that he had made up his mind to support Alito "because of his impeccable judicial credentials, the American Bar Association's strong recommendation and his pledge that he would not bring a political agenda to the court."
All 10 Republicans on the panel have endorsed Alito, assuring him of approval even though most of the eight committee Democrats are expected to oppose his confirmation.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was expected to officially announce his position on Alito in a speech to Georgetown University on Thursday. Leahy and two other committee Democrats - Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, both of Wisconsin - voted for now-Chief Justice John Roberts' confirmation.
Alito is meeting several senators over the next couple of days, including Menendez and Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia on Thursday. Menendez has not said how he'll vote on Alito, while Warner said Thursday that he "fully expects" to vote for his confirmation. Nelson, who is seeking re-election this fall in his Republican state, said in his statement that he has "supported more than 215 of President Bush's nominations to the federal bench, including Chief Justice John Roberts."
He has lock on the cattle vote.
Senator Mikulski has "a lot of unanswered questions"
No kidding. She still hasn't answered MY question to her office about why she wasn't embarrassed by Al Gore's campaign tossing military ballots in FL in the 2000 election.
Just this morning KCFW aired a segment on Schweitzer-D, governor of Montana, for President in 08. They followed this with a Abramoff story and the current republican scandal attached to him.
What republican scandal?
"he's just not right for America..."
That didn't stop Max and Barbara.
These are the 'Rats who voted NO for Roberts:
Maria Cantwell of Washington
Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey
Debbie Stabenow of Michigan
Dick Durbin of Illinois
Jon Corzine of New Jersey
Paul Sarbanes of Maryland
Barack Obama of Illinois
Daniel Akaka of Hawaii
Mark Dayton of Minnesota
Evan Bayh of Indiana
Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York
Dianne Feinstein of California
Joseph Biden of Delaware
John Kerry of Massachusetts
Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts
Jack Reed of Rhode Island
Daniel Inouye of Hawaii
Barbara Mikulski of Maryland
Harry Reid of Nevada
Charles Schumer of New York
Tom Harkin of Iowa
Barbara Boxer of California
They conveniently cut out the last part of that statement, which read "...on my part."
The lie: Concerned Alumni of Princeton, which discouraged the admission of women and minorities at the Ivy League school.
The truth: The Concerned Alumni of Princeton opposed lowering of admissions standards to meet quotas.
I'm sure many men said no to Mikulski!!!!
So far only those two. More will be announcing their votes this afternoon. Of course we can count on NO VOTES from Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry, Osama er um I mean Obama and Boxer etc.
Must be all those shepherds.
He used dirty tricks against his conservative republican opponent in his last re-election, plus he conned Montanans into thinking that the dems would re-take the white house and as the senate finance committee chairman, he (and Montana) would be in the cat's-bird seat. Instead, as always, he's just another political hack for the missoula liberals. Little story : I attended (Gov)Judy Martz's election victory night in Butte some 5 years ago now. In the early returns we were running behind in the raw numbers. I asked Judy : are we going to lose this one? Oh no she said, that's just missoula, the good precincts are still to come. She went on to win of course...
I think Hillary's going to vote for Alito. She can always say to her constituency that she wasn't at the hearings personally...
You really think so? I thought she was going to play to her Lefty side this time around and in about 4 months from now she'll play to the so-called moderate side and say or do something to tick off the leftists again. That woman is all over the place.
Why is it that everytime I see a picture of her I immediately think yeast infection?
Get it right, they're shepherds not cowboys!
Its not stress it's FEAR!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!! LOL
Menendez has to run for election. He truly is between a rock and a hard place since the Star Ledger our commie state newspaper said they were endorsing Alito and said our two senators ought to vote YES.
Big Barb saying "no" to a man -- whoda thunk it?
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