Monday, October 31, 2005
A First Look
I was planning on not saying anything about the nomination of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court before I had done a little research on him but I changed my mind this evening. I really only have a couple of up initial thoughts.
1. I think it is ironic that this choice was announced today. After all I said just the other day that I expected it fairly quickly and that I suspected that it was already decided.
2. I feel bad for Harriet Miers. (I wasn't sure I would have said that just last week.) The reason is that I am feeling more and more that her nomination was nothing more than the President asking a friend to 'fall on her sword' in public. (Though I still stand by the the comment that her nomination was a win/win nomination in the administrations mind.)
3. From the little that I have heard about Judge Alito so far, and trying to ignore his nickname of Scalito in this, I have to say that he seems a bit more conservative than I think the Democrats in the Senate are going to tolerate. (I expect to see a Filibuster in the Senate.)
4. I think that the process with Alito is going to be interesting. He seems to be very well spoken and he may be able to out manuever the committee much the way that Chief Justice Roberts did.
5. Several weeks back I spoke about a number of things that I felt were the beginnings of the 2006 mid-terms and an analysis of the situation. One of the points that I made at that time was that I thought if the President made to conservative of a nomination he was in for some trouble at the mid-terms, but that the Democrats had to be very careful in their objections during the process because they could hurt themselves by appearing two obstructionist. This is the situation that I feared. I do believe that if the Democrats frame this situation correctly they may be able to get Alito shot down without particularly appearing to be overly obstructionist.
6. On a note related I have a feeling that if things continue to deteriorate for the Administration and the economy stays sluggish in the aftermath of the Hurricanes this summer/fall, that it will severly hurt the President.
1. I think it is ironic that this choice was announced today. After all I said just the other day that I expected it fairly quickly and that I suspected that it was already decided.
2. I feel bad for Harriet Miers. (I wasn't sure I would have said that just last week.) The reason is that I am feeling more and more that her nomination was nothing more than the President asking a friend to 'fall on her sword' in public. (Though I still stand by the the comment that her nomination was a win/win nomination in the administrations mind.)
3. From the little that I have heard about Judge Alito so far, and trying to ignore his nickname of Scalito in this, I have to say that he seems a bit more conservative than I think the Democrats in the Senate are going to tolerate. (I expect to see a Filibuster in the Senate.)
4. I think that the process with Alito is going to be interesting. He seems to be very well spoken and he may be able to out manuever the committee much the way that Chief Justice Roberts did.
5. Several weeks back I spoke about a number of things that I felt were the beginnings of the 2006 mid-terms and an analysis of the situation. One of the points that I made at that time was that I thought if the President made to conservative of a nomination he was in for some trouble at the mid-terms, but that the Democrats had to be very careful in their objections during the process because they could hurt themselves by appearing two obstructionist. This is the situation that I feared. I do believe that if the Democrats frame this situation correctly they may be able to get Alito shot down without particularly appearing to be overly obstructionist.
6. On a note related I have a feeling that if things continue to deteriorate for the Administration and the economy stays sluggish in the aftermath of the Hurricanes this summer/fall, that it will severly hurt the President.
// posted by Little Wolf @ Monday, October 31, 2005 
