[xzins]

Why does this have to take so long? That's 2 months from now. They could have been having the Miers' hearings this week. Why not just put Alito in that slot?

Get it done.

[George W. Bush]

Why does this have to take so long? That's 2 months from now. They could have been having the Miers' hearings this week. Why not just put Alito in that slot?

The Court and Senate will both be recessed for over five weeks of the eight from what I gather. And Alito does have 15 years of rulings (300 opinions he wrote). So he does take more prep work by staff just to ask him a decent question. And given how brilliant he is, these senators don't want to look like the second-rate lawyer hacks that they really are. You have seen our senators, haven't you?

Not to worry. If Alito is seated before the season's opinions are issued, the cases have to be reheard. That's what they keep telling us anyway. Whether they will only be reheard if O'Connor was a swing vote or whether it's all of them, I still don't know. But this rule is why justices usually retire at the end of the season or before it begins. O'Connor had to screw even this up.