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Breaking on CNBC: USSC delays Chyrsler asset sale! Mourdock: USe of Tarp Funds in automotive industry was illegal Obama admin had urged USSC NOT to keep chrysler deal on hold

Wolf Blizer on "The Situation Room" reported that the republicans have more then enough votes for cloture, as many as 70. Looks like Kerry jumped the gun a bit too fast.

The Republican National Committee is asking supporters of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito to serve as volunteers for counter-rallies next week to confront left-wing activists. Here’s the note from the RNC’s Martin Gillespie (whose contact information is below). During next week's hearings for Judge Alito, we need volunteers to counter-rally at expected anti-Alito demonstrations. Because for the past two months the anti-Alito forces were unable to develop any grasssroots activity in the states, we are expecting them to attempt it in Washington next week. Our goal is to develop a "Rally Squad" of volunteers who will be ready to convene...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Anti-Alito push fails to sway U.S.By Charles HurtTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished January 4, 2006 Advertisement Despite a major coordinated campaign, liberal interest groups have failed to convince the American public that the Senate should reject Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.     Every major poll indicates that far more voters think Judge Alito should be confirmed than think he should be rejected. Though that support generally is lower than it was for John G. Roberts Jr. before his confirmation for chief justice in the fall, it is on par with the public support for Supreme Court nominees during...

January 2, 2006 Alito Supporters Portray Nominee as Less Polished By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - As Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. enters his final week of dress rehearsals for his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, participants say his performance has already made one thing clear: he will never be as polished and camera-ready as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was at his own hearings a few months ago. "He is not going to be the well-manicured nominee," said one participant in the rehearsals, known as murder boards, at which Republican lawyers have played the roles of interrogating...

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito told a key Democrat that he wrestled mightily with a 1991 opinion favoring an abortion restriction that has become a centerpiece in the debate over his confirmation. Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, a member of the Judiciary Committee, told the New York Times that in a private meeting he had asked Judge Alito about his dissent in the appeals court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The case was a challenge to a Pennsylvania law requiring married women to notify their husbands before seeking an abortion. The majority opinion struck down the restriction. Alito, in...

There has been much brouhaha among right-wing legal wonks about a paper "authored" by Alito while he was in Princeton. The highly selective quotes published by the mainstream press pain Alito as a Nat-Hentoff-style libertarian; they are a very strong stand for a very broadly defined right to privacy. Even from what little has been published, these quotes seem to be arguing a legislative agenda, not assertions as to what right of privacy exists in the US Constitution. Saying that sodomy should be legal is not the same as concurring with the majority in the Lawrence case; even Clarence Thomas...

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - A group of centrist senators who halted a previous filibuster fight is making plans for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, but at least two of the group's Republicans say their decision is already made: no filibuster. ADVERTISEMENT "I don't believe that, with all sincerity, I could let that happen," Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., a member of the so-called Gang of 14, said after meeting with the federal appeals court judge whom President Bush nominated to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Graham and Sen. Mike DeWine (news,...

In the great Alito-Scalito debate, everyone makes one mistake: They seem to assume that if Samuel Alito is as conservative as Antonin Scalia, that's about as conservative as a judge can be. Not so. In important ways, Samuel Alito could prove more conservative than Antonin Scalia. And the record suggests he will.Yes, Alito shares Justice Antonin Scalia's ambivalence toward judicial activism. Both men tout their own restraint in deferring to majorities that step on individual rights (including a woman's decision whether to bear a child). Both men also act aggressively to override majorities that touch states' rights like sovereign immunity...

George W. Bush has nominated Judge Samuel Alito of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to the Supreme Court. Judge Alito has a strong record academically and in government. He was U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a high-pressure job in a state where corruption is—how shall we say this?—not unknown. To be confirmed for that position, Alito would have to have been approved by New Jersey's two Democratic senators at the time, Bill Bradley and Frank Lautenberg, the latter of whom is again serving in the Senate. From my knowledge of those two men, I believe they...

Samuel Alito: Minority Rights ChampionBy Ben JohnsonFrontPageMagazine.com | November 1, 2005 DESPITE THE HISTRIONIC RHETORIC EMANATING FROM THE LEGAL LEFT on the apocalyptic consequences of his confirmation to the Supreme Court, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. – in addition to being an eminently qualified Originalist jurist – has another attractive attribute: a history of favoring the rights of minorities. In his 15 years on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito has compiled a reputation for safeguarding the rights of blacks, religious minorities, and persecuted women that would be the envy of any left-winger. As a federal appeals judge, Alito...

A talking-points memorandum being circulated by Democrats to friendly media outlets attacks Judge Samuel Alito on the basis of his Italian heritage. Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch stormed Monday night that the memo was "despicable" and a sign that desperate Democrats are "hysterical" over the Alito nomination. Hatch made the comments on MSNBC's "Hardball" with Chris Matthews. Matthews alleged that Democrats are passing around a memorandum that he called a "complaint sheet" about Alito. The cable talk show host said the lead item in the memo claims that as a federal prosecutor, Alito failed to convict members of the Lucchese...

THE ONE THING people seem to know for sure about Samuel Alito is his nickname: "Scalito." The name is meant to denote Alito's similarities to associate Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, whom the Senate confirmed, on Ronald Reagan's urging, to the Court in 1986. It's a catchy moniker, and rolls off the tongue, and may, if the media takes its cues from the press release manufacturers at the Democratic National Committee, become the catchphrase of Alito's upcoming Senate confirmation hearings.Which would be a shame. The nickname is misleading. The two men may share a vowel at the end of their...

National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) Statement: The NIAF is distressed by the attempts of some senators and the media (CNN, CBS) to marginalize Judge Samuel Alito's outstanding record, by frequent reference to his Italian heritage and by the use of the nickname, "Scalito." Appropriately, no one mentioned that Justice Breyer was Jewish or suggested that he was lock-step ideologically with the other Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it would have been outrageous to do so. We still do not know Justice Robert's ethnicity. We are justly proud of Justice Alito's Italian heritage and his sterling academic and judicial...

WASHINGTON - Samuel A. Alito has been a strong conservative jurist on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a court with a reputation for being among the nation's most liberal. Dubbed "Scalito" or "Scalia-lite," a play not only on his name but his opinions, Alito, 55, brings a hefty legal resume that belies his age. He has served on the federal appeals court for 15 years since President George H.W. Bush nominated him in 1990. Before that Alito was U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1987 to 1990, where his first assistant was a lawyer...

MEDIA/DNC NICKNAME 'SCALITO' SEEN AS RACIALLY INSENSITIVE Mon Oct 31 2005 08:42:57 ET Before Judge Samuel Alito was even officially announced as President Bush’s next Supreme Court nominee, he met a wave of racial discrimination from numerous corners of the mainstream media and the Democrat Party. Because of Judge Alito’s conservative and Italian-American background he is often been compared to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and has been nicknamed by the mainstream media “Scalito.” This morning, on CNN’s AMERICAN MORNING host Soledad O’Brien said, “we've heard the nickname ‘Scalito’…. which is of course combining the Scalia, Justice Scalia and...

Per Fox News...

WASHINGTON — Rebounding from the failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, President Bush is poised to select between two of the nation's leading conservative federal appeals-court judges — both with deep backgrounds in constitutional law — for what promises to be a bruising Senate confirmation battle. With an announcement expected today or Monday, administration officials have narrowed the focus to Judges Samuel Alito of New Jersey and Michael Luttig of Virginia, sources involved in the process said. Both have sterling legal qualifications and solid conservative credentials, and either would set off an explosive fight with Senate Democrats,...

The short list of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court suddenly appeared much shorter Friday as 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. quickly emerged as perhaps the most likely second choice to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat. In the wake of Harriet Miers' withdrawal of her nomination, the New York Times reported Friday that Alito was one of three "finalists" three weeks ago when Miers was chosen. The other, according to the Times, was 4th Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig. Hours later, on the popular law blog, SCOTUSblog.com, attorney Tom Goldstein was predicting...