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Alito Hearings: Democrats ExposedBy Vasko Kohlmayer January 13th, 2006 The interrogation portion of the Alito hearings treated America to a dismal spectacle of a group of liberal senators attempting to demonize an accomplished jurist and a decent man. Replete with ominous insinuations, the stratagem predictably featured dark hints of closeted bigotry and racism. Closeted is the key word here since nothing in Alito's extensive writings or personal life has indicated that this actually may be the case. Apart from being a disgust-provoking sight, the hearings had a tremendous educational value presenting a textbook illustration of the liberal modus operandi. By...

A group cleverly called People for the Alito Way says the Associated Press wrongly characterized its an episode at Samuel Alito's hearing today that left his wife in tears. The AP story, which followed an exclusive from the Drudge Report, placed the blame on a Republican senator rather than committee Democrats -- a fact the conservative group says is just plain wrong. After taking a steady beating from Senate Democrats today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) offered an apology to Alito. (Read the full transcript.) "Judge Alito, I am sorry that you've had to go through this," Graham said. "I am...

During the John Roberts confirmation hearing it became clear that the Senators from both parties were not interested in the nominees views on matters as much as they were in love with the sound of their own voice. So we did something that was highly popular. We did a statistical analysis of the percentage of words spoken by each Senator compared with the number of words spoken by the nominee. We found that in nearly every case the Senators spoke far more than the nominees. So, by popular demand we have done the same thing for the Alito hearings. And...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito calmly turned aside Democratic attacks on his judicial record at confirmation hearings Wednesday, declaring his impartiality and saying, "If I'm confirmed I'll be myself." He joined Senate Democrats in denouncing the positions of a controversial Princeton alumni group he once highlighted. "I am who I am and I am my own person" said the 55-year-old appeals court judge, who would replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in what has been a swing seat on the Supreme Court. Under persistent questioning, Alito declined for a second straight day to say whether believes, as he did...

Ever since the plea bargain with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff was announced, the media and the Democrats have done their best to portray this as a Republican controversy. Abramoff bribed Republican lawmakers like Tom DeLay we're told. This is being used to paint the current House and Senate leadership as corrupt. That may be true, but what's getting swept under the rug is the two big fish in the Democratic party that Abramoff had on his payroll. Who are they? None other than Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan. What are they accused of doing?...

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito told reporters today that despite Sen. Charles Schumer’s hostile questioning in yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, the federal appeals court judge would “keep an open mind” about the New York lawmaker. The remark reflected the same approach that Judge Alito told the committee he would take toward any abortion cases that might come before him as a Supreme Court justice. “Despite the precedent of Sen. Schumer’s disparaging questions yesterday, and his implication that my testimony is dishonest,” Judge Alito said, “I will treat him as if the slate is clean and evaluate his performance today...

I guess we all know that the Democrats, and especially the Democrats from the Judiciary Committee are a bunch of %#&*@!, I mean really, the Democrats that sit there are the essence of crazy lunacy. But that's not the point of this post. Recently I was doing a little research on the history of judicial nominations and I found a little information about senator James O. Eastland from Mississippi (of course a Democrat). Of course you could easily suspect that a Southern Democratic senator in the 50s, 60s and 70s would be a racist, but HE was really something: (from...

Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) was voted overwhelmingly the "biggest windbag" on the Judiciary Committee in yesterday's AlitoBlog.com poll. With 500 votes cast, Kennedy received 69.6% of the vote -- far outpacing his nearest rival, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.), who finished with 18%. Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.), a likely presidential candidate in 2008, had 6.4% to finish third. The committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), despite his prominent role during the hearings, placed fourth with 2.4%. Sen. Dianne Feinstein had 1.9% for a fifth-place finish. The other two Democrats, Senators Herb Kohl (Wis.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.), received no votes....

Senate Judiciary Committee members had their first crack at questioning Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito today. Now you can vote for the worst question posed by a liberal at Tuesday's session. Check back tomorrow at AlitoBlog.com for the results.

Macsmind is reporting that Sen. Rockefeller may be the target of investigators examining the leak of classified information on the NSA surveillance program. I’m trying to confirm this information, but several sources are telling me today that some investigators working on the NSA leak probe believe that Senator Jay Rockefeller may have been a little more than “concerned” about NSA. In fact, he may just be the leaker of the program to the NY Times, and is now being considered a “significant person of interest” in the probe.

Several Democrats Monday, including the reliable Sen. Edward Kennedy, seemed on the verge of making an even worse tactical error. They suggested that Alito's respect for executive branch prerogatives would make him too ready to approve wiretapping and other surveillance of terrorists. That shows a deep misreading of U.S. opinion. Not only do most polls show that a small plurality of Americans favors wiretapping as a tool against terrorism, but even those against do not consider it a wildly extreme position. When the Democrats campaign against Alito on those grounds, they reinforce the public view of themselves as weak on...

HELENA - Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said Monday his political enemies are behind newspaper reports linking him to confessed felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Burns, who is on a media tour of Montana this week, also said he has no intentions of dropping out of the 2006 U.S. Senate race, quashing a rumor that has floated around both Helena and Washington, D.C. “Write it down, real quick: I've never had more enthusiasm or higher energy for a campaign in my life than I got right now, OK? End of story,” Burns told the Lee Newspapers State Bureau reporters in...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) just paid a visit to Bloggers' Row to reaffirm his commitment to making sure Samuel Alito's confirmation vote will happen by Jan. 20 -- the date agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats, which has been threatened by Democratic delay tactics. "That is the day that had generally been agreed to in conversations among Senators Leahy, Specter, Reid and myself," Frist said. "And it has been colored a little bit differently the last few days by Senators Kennedy, Schumer and others, all of whom have it within their power to make feeble attempts at delay...

Republicans are looking for "their" John McCain. The popular Arizona maverick is already a Republican, of course. But the GOP needs a McCain in the "Keating Five" sense. Back in 1990, Senate Democrats roped McCain into the scandal over savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating on tenuous grounds, just so not all the senators involved would be Democrats. The GOP now craves such bipartisan cover in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Republicans trumpet every Democratic connection to Abramoff in the hope that something resonates. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), took more than $60,000 from Abramoff clients! North Dakota Democratic...

Time for capital cleanup By Sen. Harry Reid DenverPost.com For many Americans, the start of the New Year is a time to pause and reflect. We take stock of our blessings and make New Year's resolutions about how we can improve. I believe it is appropriate for us to pause and reflect on the state of our union. Americans are asking serious questions about what is happening in government, and they are right to be disappointed by what they see. Never before in our history have we seen such corruption. It's not only the scandals at the House, Senate and...

A filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito would be "unprecedented" and might prompt a public backlash, warned Ed Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman who is shepherding Alito through his confirmation hearings. Gillespie, in an interview on Fox Friends on Monday, said he hopes Senate Democrats would not go to such an extreme. Alito's confirmation hearing begins at noon on Monday, and even before it started, Senate Democrats warned that they would not accept incomplete answers to their questions. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that Democrats won't stand for Alito refusing to answer questions on the...

[ Headline only at this point ... Stay Tuned for More Details ... the link takes you to an article already posted on Free Republic about politicians, other than Landrieu, who have benefitted from Abramoff's largesse] LANDRIEU AMONG DEMS WHO TOOK ABRAMOFF MONEY

Hoping to gain an early political edge in 2006, Congressional Democratic leaders next week will unveil the first piece of their election-year agenda by announcing a far-reaching legislative package that the party says will clean up government and stop influence peddling in Congress. HARRY REID MEMO LEAKED: JANUARY 6, 2006 TO: SENATE DEMOCRATS FROM: SENATOR REID SUBJECT: THE REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CORRUPTION The New Year is beginning just as the last year ended - with Americans getting a direct look at how Republican-run Washington really works. The guilty pleas of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff have lifted the veil of Republican...

So the Democrat Party is running a TV ad claiming Democrats "Didn't know Jack". OH Really? Let's see what a Non Partisan Campaign Watchdog group says. Here is the WHOLE Open Secrets list for those who "Want to be fair". http://www.capitaleye.org/abramoff.asp List of Democrats who got Abramoff's money Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte $121,500 Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte $354,700 Democratic National Cmte $65,720 Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) $42,500 Patty Murray (D-Wash) $40,980 Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) $36,000 Harry Reid (D-Nev) $30,500 (By way of comparison here is that "EVIL Republican" Tom Delay-Tom DeLay (R-Texas) $30,500 Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) $28,000 Tom...

Hillary Clinton Caught with Abramoff CashUnlike many in her party, 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has been silent about the influence peddling scandal erupting around lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose plea bargain with the Justice Department is said to have more than a few on Capitol Hill quaking in their boots. Now we know why. Turns out, Mrs. Clinton is among the dozens of Democrats who accepted Mr. Abramoff's tainted contributions. Clinton spokeswoman Ann Lewis told The Buffalo News on Thursday that "after examining our records we found two contributions for $1,000 from tribes which have been clients of Jack Abramoff...