It appears as though the rumor mills are true – President Bush will nominate Justice Samuel Alito of the 3rd Circuit as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Alito’s a safe pick, but safe picks are what’s needed. He’s a solid conservative, but not an ideologue. He has an extensive judicial record, is known for writing quality opinions, and has the right temperament to be an effective judge. In many ways, he closely resembles Chief Justice Roberts in terms of judicial philosophy and experience.
If the Democrats try a filibuster, it will likely lead to a collapse of The Deal, and it seems like the Gang of 14 will find Alito an acceptable choice.
Alito represents a safe, but solid, choice for the Supreme Court. After the Miers debacle, that’s exactly what the President needs.
The allegedly anti-intellectual conservative elitists got their Ivy League-educated stuffed shirt. Big surprise there. And Bush’s base gets the bloody fight with Democrats that they wanted, making their man a liar with his “bringing the country together” rhetoric of five years ago. Again, no surprise. This is a win-win for Republicans in the short-term because he gets to show pro-life voters (including alot of traditionally Democratic Catholics) that the “new Democrats” are the party of, above all else, unrestricted abortion rights. We should all bear in mind that it was the work of the noxious Democratic Leadership Council that made abortion the most prominent issue of the party’s “opposition” status after choosing to discard the interests of their working-class base.
In a previous era, before the Democrats entire platform was anchored by abortion rights above all else, we could let the Republicans hang themselves by appointing SCOTUS judges that would either infuriate their base by not voting to overturn Roe vs. Wade…..or voting to overturn Roe vs. Wade against the wishes of more than 60% of Americans and then deal with the bruising political consequences of that decision. Now we are held hostage by the abortion rights lobby and have to fight this losing battle based on the hypothetical that Roe vs. Wade will be overturned if Bush’s guy gets nominated. Meanwhile, conservative working-class voters will not even be mindful of all the workers’ rights rollbacks and pension theft issues that the justices they’re aligning themselves with will impose on them and their families.
Let the Repubs push the button on the Nuclear Option. Then they won’t be able to use it when they sink back into a congressional minority.