Free Republic

Senators Kerry and Kennedy (D-Massive) vow to filibuster the vote on Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. “Mr. Alito did not serve in Vietnam,” said Kerry. “He’s never been shot at, never killed anyone. I can’t respect a man of my generation who’s done neither. Since there apparently will be enough votes in the Senate to confirm Alito, we have no choice but to work to prevent a vote.” “During his entire judicial career, Judge Alito has never shown that he understands the plight of the drunk and disorderly,” said Kennedy. “These unfortunate souls need sympathy. All Alito has...

Last February, as rumors swirled about the failing health of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, a team of conservative grass-roots organizers, public relations specialists and legal strategists met to prepare a battle plan to ensure any vacancies were filled by like-minded jurists. The team recruited conservative lawyers to study the records of 18 potential nominees — including Judges John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — and trained more than three dozen lawyers across the country to respond to news reports on the president's eventual pick. "We boxed them in," one lawyer present during the strategy meetings said...

Democrats — at least those seeking the Democratic nomination for president and those who are desperate for money from extremist Left deep pockets — are trying to "out-Liberal" each other on the Alito nomination, even when it is clear a bipartisan majority of senators intend to make the Judge Alito "Justice Alito" in just a few days. John Kerry, after launching the first international filibuster from the slopes of the Swiss Alps with the help of Ted Kennedy, gave a speech earlier on the Senate floor that rivals Kennedy’s 1987 smear of Judge Bork. Kennedy claimed that in “Judge Bork’s...

WITH SAMUEL ALITO ABOUT to be confirmed, it's time to take stock of this particular episode in the making of a justice, the nation's 110th. Bear in mind that Alito was not President Bush's first choice to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor. The estimable John Roberts was, but when Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, Bush decided to redesignate Roberts for the center seat. That meant finding another nominee for O'Connor's seat.As it happened, Bush surprised the world by naming White House Counsel Harriet Miers. The Miers nomination proved a major blunder. Bush had opted for a person he knew well who...

WASHINGTON - Senate GOP leaders plan to confirm Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito early next week after dealing with a filibuster threat from Democratic die-hards who worry that the conservative judge would swing the court too far to the right.A final vote making the New Jersey jurist the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice was scheduled for Tuesday morning, only hours before President Bush begins his State of the Union address to Congress and the nation, if Alito’s bipartisan supporters succeed in rounding up 60 votes to cut off debate on Monday.<SNIP>A Democratic senator who plans to vote against Alito’s confirmation,...

I have an interesting tidbit of information to share. My old college roommate's mother is friends with Judge Alito's mother. They go to the same church in Roseland, New Jersey. Well, the judge's mother shared something with her that hasn't been in the papers and may bring a different perspective to those tears Alito's wife shed in the hearing. It seems Judge Alito's wife (the former Martha-Ann Bomgardner) has had personal reasons to dislike Senator Kennedy since long before Splash's shameful treatment of her husband. Long ago, the Senator was also less than kind to girl whose family was friends...

On 12 January, 2006, the New York Times ran an article entitled “Thrust into the Limelight, and for Some A Symbol of Washington’s Bite.” It was a mini-biography of Mrs. Martha-Ann Alito, and it purported to explain the reasons for Mrs. Alito’s tears during her husband Samuel’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It blamed them on a follow-up question by Senator Lindsay Graham, rather than on the verbal savaging of Judge Alito by the Democrats on the Committee, led by Senator Ted Kennedy. The Times should have gotten the story right, because one of the three reporters on...

Contact: Press Office 202-863-8614  “To even suggest a filibuster against a nominee as qualified as Judge Alito reflects a philosophy so out of touch that it’s bordering on reckless. The judicial confirmation process, particularly one for the nation’s highest court, should be insulated from such thoughtless bomb throwing in an effort to remain relevant. One can't help but wonder if the consummate candidate was for Judge Alito, before he was against him.”-Tracey Schmitt, RNC Press Secretary SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA) CALLS IN ALITO FILIBUSTER FROM SWITZERLAND“Sen. John Kerry Has Decided To Support A Filibuster To Block The Nomination Of Judge Samuel...

Judge Samuel Alito Jr., whose entire history suggests that he holds extreme views about the expansive powers of the presidency and the limited role of Congress, will almost certainly be a Supreme Court justice soon. His elevation will come courtesy of a president whose grandiose vision of his own powers threatens to undermine the nation's basic philosophy of government — and a Senate that seems eager to cooperate by rolling over and playing dead.It is hard to imagine a moment when it would be more appropriate for senators to fight for a principle. Even a losing battle would draw the...

Our American president went to the National Security Agency in Ft. Meade, Maryland, to speak with staff and address the press there. Click here for text of his remarks. He also spoke with former clerks of Judge Alito's. Laua Bush oversaw the "Coming Up Taller Awards" in the White House, an initiative of the U.S. President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities overseen by the first lady. This is for after-school events that promote the arts in youth. Welcome to Sanity Island!

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito won commitments from a majority of senators Tuesday, assuring his eventual confirmation and making a rightward tilt of the court likely.  On the same day Alito won a 10-8 party-line approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee, five Republicans announced that they would vote for his confirmation in the full Senate, pushing him over 50 votes in the 100-member chamber. Fifty Senate Republicans, plus one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, have publicly committed to vote for Alito through their representatives, interviews with The Associated Press or news releases. No Republicans have opposed him and...

From Fox News' "Fox News Live" January 24, 2006Former DNC Chairman, Governor Ed Rendell [D-PA]: "I Believe He's A Qualified Judge. He Sits On The Third Circuit Court Of Appeals In Philadelphia. I Don't Know If You Know This ... My Wife Is A Third Circuit Court Judge."Fox News' Bill Hemmer: "I'm Aware Of That, And Your History In Philadelphia Should Give You Pretty Good Knowledge Of Him."Rendell: "Right. She Has A High Opinion Of His Integrity And His Academic Standards. She Disagrees With Him On A Number Of Cases And Agrees With Him On Some. I Disagree With A...

Democrats don't need hearings Jan 23, 2006 by Kay Daly Judging from the microseconds between President Bush’s announcement of Samuel Alito to be the next Supreme Court Justice and the hysterical howls from the multitude of leftist organizations in the quickly formed anti-Alito chorus, it is clear that no matter how Judge Alito performed in the hearings, the Left would not be remotely interested in a fair confirmation process. It has been this way since the beginning of the Bush administration. President Bush’s hand was barely off the Bible in his first term when liberal legal activists, such as Abner...

If Judge Samuel Alito Jr.'s confirmation hearings lacked drama, apart from his wife's bizarrely over-covered crying jag, it is because they confirmed the obvious. Judge Alito is exactly the kind of legal thinker President Bush wants on the Supreme Court. He has a radically broad view of the president's power, and a radically narrow view of Congress's power. He has long argued that the Constitution does not protect abortion rights. He wants to reduce the rights and liberties of ordinary Americans, and has a history of tilting the scales of justice against the little guy. As senators prepare to vote...

“Sen. Salazar is nothing more than a partisan pawn who is simply toting the party line of the extreme liberals within his party. The excuses he offers for opposing Judge Alito’s confirmation are transparent and reek of partisan politics. Sen. Salazar claims that he thinks Alito will move the court ‘out of the mainstream of American law’ – to Salazar I say, this vote is certainly out of the mainstream of the Colorado voters. This sort of liberal behavior makes me wonder if Sen. Salazar remembers which voters he represents – liberal Massachusetts’ or Colorado’s?

Washington -- A leading black civil rights group is releasing a new advertisement that takes on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on a sensitive gay rights issue. The National Black Justice Coalition announced today that the group is publishing an ad that challenges the influence of religious intolerance on the US Supreme Court. The ad -- which will be published in the Afro-American Newspapers in Baltimore and Washington, and in Roll Call, the Congressional newspaper -- features a photograph of Justice Thomas, who is black, and his wife Virginia, who is white. Noting their...

CHICAGO, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Judge Samuel Alito seems destined to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the Supreme Court of the United States in the coming weeks and will likely be faced with an assortment of major technology cases as a new justice, but legal experts tell UPI's The Web that as an appeals-court judge for the last 15 years his experience with technology cases has been quite limited. Alito has been an appeals-court judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in New Jersey and has heard one major copyright case and a number of contract cases...

Today (Tuesday) the San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial entitled, “Why Alito is the wrong choice.” Instead of demonstrating what it says, it demonstrates why the Chronicle has failed to do its homework as reporters, in preparing its editorial. Here’s why: The editorial begins with this statement: In some ways, Alito's taciturn approach to questions about the great constitutional issues of our time was similar to that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. But the distinction between the history of the two judges -- and the role of the justice they were nominated to replace -- are important. First,...

The Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito told us more about the Senators than it did about Judge Alito.First, there were those long-winded preambles to "questions" for the judge. Then there were the Mickey Mouse maneuvers and insinuations, spiced here and there with outright lies.The ridiculousness of the charges was classically illustrated by Senator Joseph Biden's claim that Alito had been part of a group that was trying to keep minorities and women out of Princeton. Apparently wanting everyone to meet the same admissions standards is considered to be the same as being against minorities and women.To dramatize his...

Judging the judges By A question that bears looking into is whether a career in politics inevitably turns people into hypocrites or whether hypocrites are born, not made, and are simply drawn to the field the way that steel shavings are drawn to a magnet. Being a conservative, naturally I hold Democrats in far lower regard than I do Republicans. But, overall, I don’t think that politicians of any stripe should be trusted anywhere near a live microphone or anybody’s wallet. In fact, I find most people’s infatuation with office holders completely infantile and unseemly, and on a par with...