Posted on 01/19/2006 7:29:08 AM PST by katieanna
AP) The headcount continues in the Senate on the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito, which comes up for a Judiciary Committee vote on Tuesday.
Democrats Max Baucus of Montana, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts all announced Wednesday that they will vote against Alito, President Bush's pick to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
"He's just not right for Montana, he's just not right for America," Baucus said. Added Mikulski, "I have a lot of unanswered questions."
The Alito nomination has caused a rift among Senate Democrats, with one saying publicly he will vote for the conservative judge while others are lining up to oppose his confirmation.
Several Democrats are expected to make their votes public Thursday, including Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Last fall, Leahy and two other committee Democrats - Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, both from Wisconsin - voted to confirm the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts.
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska Tuesday became the only Democrat to say that he will support Alito. Nelson said he will vote in favor of the nomination of 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."
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."
All ten Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have endorsed Alito, assuring him of approval even though most of the eight committee Democrats are expected to oppose his confirmation.
Many Democrats are expected to speak against Alito's nomination when final Senate debate begins Jan. 25. "I'm not a fan of Alito," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Alito met Wednesday with several Democratic senators, including Baucus, Bill Nelson of Florida and Ron Wyden of Oregon. He is meeting Thursday with Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware and new Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. All those senators except Baucus are undecided on Alito's nomination.
Alito will also meet with Republicans John Sununu of New Hampshire and John Warner of Virginia on Thursday. Sununu is undecided, while Warner expects to vote for Alito's confirmation.
You may be thinking of the senior Sununu, as the one who recommended Bush 41 nominate Souter to SCOTUS.
If Sununu votes against Alito, the next primary should for the Smith/Sununu seat should produce as GOP nominee the lovely, charming, brilliant and trustworthy young Attorney General Ayotte who won a ruling overturning the First Circuit yesterday on New Hampshire's parental notification statute. It was a partial victory but O'Connor should be gone by the time the First Circuit makes its next error in support of baby-killing.
There are a lot more RINOs waffling on Alito than comfort allows. It's going to be a very close vote.
Leahy is not very mysterious.
When you come from a State where the judges hand out 60 day sentences to men who repeatedly rape little girls over a several year period, and no one in the State sees anything wrong with the sentence, it stands to reason that he'd vote against anyone who'd stand up for real Justice.
He is the first one I have heard of to waffle. I think all 55 Rs will vote to confirm.
Sununu needs a kick in the patutu.
On C-SPAN2 now.
IMO, he is still carrying a grudge at Dubya for being the one to fire his dad.
IMO, Sununu is nothing more than a clone of McC. Itching to be bitching at the president whenever possible.
Chafee, Snow, and Collins are already on record saying they are leaning against him.
thanks, friend.
where did you hear that?
Sununu is undecided?
Didn't his Daddy give us Souter via the first Bush?
There was a posted article on FR.
That's not a big news flash....they might as well be democrats.
I didn't hear that either. No Republican has said he/she would vote against. You can bet that if that happened, the news media would report it. They're itiching for an excuse to paint Alito as "extreme". Respectfully, I think the person who posted that is mistaken
There was a post several days ago. I can't find it. The search function won't let you fine tune your search enough.
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