Big steaming load of crap IMHO. Trying to delay it as long as possible in order to scuttle the process by allowing lots of time to smear Alito. Bush should come out and say that schedule is unacceptable, and the Senate should work through Xmas if needed. O'Conner should also stand up and tell the Senators they are lazy sacks of sh!t.
How do I know this will not happen?
Other than providing DEMS with more time to try to dig up bad stuff on Alito, is this delay a big deal?
Not delaying it so much as time for trashing Alito, but because some very important votes are coming up at the Supreme Court between now and then that Alito would probably vote diffently than O'Connor. Seems like there something as important as abortion, church and state issues. I can't remember at the moment what's coming up, but I'm pretty sure there are some votes that conservatives are very interested in.
O'Conner wants to be voting when the two abortion cases and the queer marriage case are ripe. As soon as Miers withdrew, that made it pretty much a done deal.
She's not going to make any comments about this being too late.
They're delaying it because between now and January, Sandra Day O'Connor will rule on some important cases brought before the SCOTUS (including abortion) per Shepherd Smith on FOX Radio.