Posted on 11/04/2005 7:05:43 AM PST by pabianice
The Senate will not conduct Supreme Court confirmation hearings for federal Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. until next year, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter announced yesterday.
A final confirmation vote by the full Senate is scheduled tentatively for Jan. 20, making it the longest confirmation process since that of Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991.
Mr. Specter's timetable envisions five days of hearings before the judiciary panel, starting Jan. 9, followed by a committee vote on Jan. 17.
"The White House wanted [Judge Alito's confirmation] before Christmas," Mr. Specter said yesterday. "It just couldn't be done. We have to do it right; we can't do it fast."
Although the White House had sought a faster schedule, spokesman Steve Schmidt said the administration had "great confidence in Chairman Specter to manage the extremely complicated process of moving a nominee to the Supreme Court through the U.S. Senate."
But based on comments yesterday by centrist Democrats, Judge Alito does not appear headed toward bitter hearings like Justice Thomas.
"He certainly got it off to a good start," Sen. Mark Pryor, Arkansas Democrat, said yesterday after meeting with Judge Alito. Mr. Pryor is among the "Gang of 14" who can determine whether the "extraordinary circumstances" exist that warrant a filibuster against a nominee.
"I don't see any extraordinary circumstances," Mr. Pryor said. "I don't expect any. But then again, things can change rather quickly, and I'll continue to be looking for those."
That group of seven Democrats and seven Republicans who crafted a deal in May to break the Democratic filibusters against President Bush's appeals-court nominees met yesterday morning for the first time since Judge Alito's nomination on Monday.
"No, I don't see anything," Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat and Gang of 14 member, said
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.washingtontimes.com ...
There is something afoot, and while I'm sure the Democrats are pleased by this decision, they cannot be blamed for it.
You're right. Congress adjourns late in the year and comes back in January. Thus the hearing is set for January.
Specter wants Sam Alito defeated as much as the Dims do, but he knows he'll get demolished by us if he openly comes out against Alito, or if he tries any monkey business with jiggering around with the Judiciary Committee proceedings. He sees the Gang of 14 falling apart, Alito wowing the real GOP senators, and so far el zippo useful dirt from the Dim destruction machine. In short, there's nothing to stop Alito right now.
So Specter's playing the only card he has left, delaying the process and hoping something shakes loose in the next two months. And a lot could happen between now and January 9 - the Dims and the media might succeed in pressuring Fitzgerald into indicting Karl Rove, seriously weakening the President's fortunes; the media will no doubt come up with all sorts of disgusting stuff from the left-wing rumor mills and some of it might stick; the hard-right purists will find something they don't like in Alito's record and turn against him, and maybe that'll catch fire like the effort to dump Miers did (though there's very little chance of that one actually happening).
The next two months will be very interesting, but one huge thing working against Specter and the Dims is that most people tend to pay very little attention to Washington politics during the holiday season. So they'll have to work very hard to get their message of hate through to people whose attention is even more divided than it normally is. But that's the hand they've been dealt, and now they have to play it the best they can.
My opinion - in the end, this tactic will bomb just like all the crap they tried to pull with John Roberts bombed, and then Specter will have to make a decision as to whether or not he wants to deal with the heat from us by actively scuttling Alito. And he may well decide that he's a sick old man who knows that his Senate seat will go to fellow liberal if he doesn't survive his term, so he doesn't have anything to lose by screwing the GOP once again. He might even consider it a fitting final act for his career.
And even if it was possible, a recess appointment would destroy Alito's chances of ever getting a permanent appointment the the Court. There's no way even the GOP senators would let that happen after being slapped in the face (their perspective) like that.
FYI on MoveOn.org
Begin Copy:
Dear MoveOn member,
On Monday, President Bush buckled under pressure from the radical right and nominated the extreme right wing Judge Samuel Alito. MoveOn members leapt into action, blowing away our original goal and gathering more than 350,000 signatures in just over 24 hours—a new MoveOn record.
So today we're aiming to boost the total to half a million signatures, and do it by tomorrow. If we can get there, we'll run an ad in Roll Call, the newspaper that Congress reads, to show them the new total.
To reach our national goal, we need just 3,402 more signatures from New Jersey.
Please sign today, if you haven't already, and remember to forward this note on to friends.
**EDITED**
Tomorrow's an especially important deadline, because the so-called "Gang of 14"—a group of centrist Senators from both parties—will be meeting to discuss the possibility of a filibuster, and whether or not they'll honor their agreement to keep the "nuclear option" off the table.2 We need to make sure those Senators, and all of Congress, understand that the public is fully engaged and prepared to defend our basic rights.
(excerpt)
That would be Anita (Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned) Hill.
That's what happens when you don't have all the spending bills passed thanks to obstructionist RATs. GOP is concentrating on cutting the budget to fund the disasters and getting stiff opposition from the RATs.
I love it when people do their homework.
Bingo. That case is the reason for the delay. The Dems want O'Connor on it. They will drag it out as long as possible for her to be on the decision.
During the days when we were urging the Republicans not to allow Specter to be chair of the Judiciary Committee, I observed that as time passed, Specter would be in a stronger and stronger position, and Bush would get weaker and weaker as he neared the end of his term. If Specter made trouble, it would only make Bush look bad, since he and Rove were responsible for putting him there. Bush would have little leverage if Specter decided to be ungrateful.
Other Freepers said that of course Bush would still control Specter.
So, which is it? Specter owes Bush a very large debt, for helping him win the primary and gain the chairmanship. Will Bush call in this debt? Can he?
I think we can see the answer, right here. Specter is giving the Democrats two extra months to gear up their propaganda campaign, which they've obviously been having a hard time with so far. Two months will make a big difference. Plenty of time for planning, for priming false witnesses, for synchronizing who publishes what among the MSM big guys.
Possible insight to delay, see last paragraph
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1515605/posts?page=46#46
Sorry guys and gals. . . .
For your educational benefit, there is not a "recess appointment" available to the Pres when it comes to the Courts. The Judiciary is a 3rd and totally separate branch of our government. Per the Constitution the Pres nominates candidates for the bench(s) and the Senate provides advice and consent. The Pres can perform recess appointments for Executive Branch personel that require Constitutional approval - ONLY.
O'Conner's only impact might be that an 8 justice court might choose to wait to hear a case.
tuck
We can blame Bush for this. Had it not been for the Miers interlude, Alito would have started hearings next week.
Actually, the Dems wanted to wait till April so that O'Connor would be around for all the arguments this year so I see this as a victory for Pubs. It took almost two months for the Senate to do the Roberts nomination and he had just recently been appointed to the Appeals Court. So IMO this is reasonable and hopefully Alito will be sitting with the other Supremes during the State of the Union...
Which was pure bullshit, you know. Roosevelt was incapable of standing-up by himself.
You nailed it.
"Ayotte vs. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, in which two lower courts have reaffirmed that a women’s health supercedes any state or political limits to reproductive choice, is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this fall."
Spector is extremely pro-choice and this gives the pro-chhoicers another decision with O'Connor to tie down another precedent.
And of course, the only "basic right" that counts to the left these days, is abortion.
LOL! It's Bush's Fault!
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