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| Now this is more like it. |
ETWolverine |
10/31/05 |
Found at MSLSD:
Bush nominates Alito for Supreme Court
Conservative federal judge picked to replace retiring O'Connor
BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:40 a.m. ET Oct. 31, 2005
WASHINGTON - President Bush, stung by the rejection of his first choice, nominated conservative judge Samuel Alito on Monday to replace moderate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in a bid to reshape the Supreme Court and mollify his political base.
“Judge Alito is one of the most accomplished and respected judges in America,” the president said in announcing Alito’s selection. “He’s got a mastery of the law and a deep commitment to justice.” Bush exhorted the Senate to confirm his choice by the end of the year.
The choice was likely to spark a political brawl. Unlike the nomination of Harriet Miers, which was derailed Thursday by Bush’s conservative allies, Alito faces opposition from Democrats.
“The Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
In contrast to Miers, Alito “has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in 70 years,” the president said.
Consistent conservative
So consistently conservative, Alito has been dubbed “Scalito” or “Scalia-lite” by some lawyers because his judicial philosophy invites comparisons to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But while Scalia is outspoken and is known to badger lawyers, Alito is polite, reserved and even-tempered.
Wasting no time, the White House arranged for Alito to go to the Capitol after the announcement. The schedule called for Senate Majority Leader Bill First to greet him and accompany the nominee to the Capitol Rotunda to go to the coffin of the late civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.
“The Supreme Court is an institution I have long held in reverence,” said the bespectacled judge, a former prosecutor and government attorney who has argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court. “During my 29 years as a public servant, I’ve had an opportunity to view the Supreme Court from a variety of perspectives.”
From the bench, Alito has staked out positions supporting restrictions on abortion, such as parental and spousal notification.
Republican rift (This part is utter partisan bull$h!t--- Elliot)
The White House hopes the choice mends a rift in the Republican Party caused by the failed nomination of Miers, a Bush loyalist, and puts his embattled presidency on a path to political recovery.
With the rebuke of Miers, the rising death toll in Iraq, his slow-footed response to Katrina and last Friday’s indictment of top vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Bush’s approval ratings are at the lowest ebb of his presidency.
Polls show Democrats and most independents don’t approve of his job performance, leaving the conservative wing of his party the only thing keeping Bush afloat politically.
Miers bowed out last Thursday after three weeks of bruising criticism from members of Bush’s own party who argued that the Texas lawyer and loyal Bush confidant had thin credentials on constitutional law and no proven record as a judicial conservative.
If he is confirmed by the Senate, Alito would join another Bush pick on the bench, Chief Justice John Roberts. O’Connor, who is retiring, has been a decisive swing vote in a host of affirmative action, abortion, campaign finance, discrimination and death penalty cases.
Officials, who spoke on on condition of anonymity before Bush's announcement, said Alito was virtually certain from the start to get the nod from the moment Miers backed out. The 55-year-old jurist was Bush’s favorite choice of the judges in the last set of deliberations but he settled instead on someone outside what he calls the “judicial monastery,” the officials said.
Bush believes that Alito has not only the right experience and conservative ideology for the job, but also has a temperament suited to building consensus on the court. A former prosecutor, Alito has experience off the bench that factored into Bush’s thinking, the officials said.
“The president has made an excellent choice today which reflects his commitment to appoint judges in the mold of Scalia and Thomas,” said Kay Daly, president of the conservative Coalition for a Fair Judiciary.
“It’s a pretty predictable move from a politically crippled president,” said Democratic consultant Jim Jordan. “Toss out a judicial extremist to pacify his base and provoke a fight that he hopes changes the subject away from indictments and Iraq and Katrina and a soft economy.”
Democrats warn of partisan brawl
While Alito is expected to win praise from Bush’s allies on the right, Democrats have served notice they will fight it. Reid had warned Sunday that it would “create a lot of problems.”
Unlike Miers, who has never been a judge, Alito, a jurist from New Jersey, has been a strong conservative voice on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, seated him there in 1990.
Judicial conservatives praise Alito’s 15 years on the Philadelphia-based court, a tenure that gives him more appellate experience than almost any previous Supreme Court nominee. They say his record shows a commitment to a strict interpretation of the Constitution, ensuring that the separation of powers and checks and balances are respected and enforced. They also contend that Alito has been a powerful voice for the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and the free exercise of religion.
Liberal groups, on the other hand, note Alito’s moniker and say his nomination raises troubling concerns, especially when it comes to his record on civil rights and reproductive rights. Alito is a frequent dissenter on the 3rd Circuit, one of the most liberal federal appellate benches in the nation.
In the early 1990s, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.
“The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands’ knowledge because of perceived problems — such as economic constraints, future plans or the husbands’ previously expressed opposition — that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion,” Alito wrote.
He has not been a down-the-line abortion foe. In 2000, Alito joined the majority that found a New Jersey law banning late-term abortions unconstitutional. In his concurring opinion, Alito said the Supreme Court required such a ban to include an exception if the mother’s health was endangered.
The case ended up at the Supreme Court where the justices, in a 6-3 decision struck down the spousal notification provision of the law. The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist cited Alito’s reasoning in his own dissent.
Alito, an Italian-American who grew up in Trenton, N.J., has a resume filled with stepping stones to the high court. He was educated at Princeton University and earned a law degree from Yale University, the president’s alma mater.
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9874588/page/2/
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Opinions please. |
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 11/01/05 7:03 am:
Elliot
I do not think it is in his nature to expose a trusted aide and close friend that way. There is no way to prove it I guess but other evidence suggests something else. I am certain that he had designs to put Alberto Gonzalez on the court .When there was grumblings about his conservative bonifides Bush testily said to leave Gonzales alone . But he nver did go through with the nomination .In that case he knew what his base's reaction would be .
I think with Miers ;he saw her name on a list of acceptable candidates that Harry Reid presented to the White House ,and saw an opportunity to reward a faithful crony . I really think he tried to avoid the fight that will happen over the Alito nomination ;instead he got a fight from his base.
This ought to be good . Already they smeared him in a memo about a failure to get convictions of the Lucchese's and by association linking his Italian-American heritage to being soft on the Mafia .The memo failed to note that Alito won a major prosecution against the Genovese .
To further smear him they have already noted irrelevent facts like the gender ratio of the court will change and that with Alito ,the dreaded Catholics will have a majority of the seats on the Court [Alito ;Roberts ;Kennedy, ; Scalia and Thomas ]. Clarification/Follow-up by ETWolverine on 11/01/05 7:58 am:
Amazing the level that they will stoop to for a good smear.
First of all, calling him "Scalito" is disingenuous to both Alito and Scalia... not that I believe that Alito would mind being compared to Scalia or vice-versa. But each is his own man and should be treated as such.
Second, that crap about being soft on crime or soft on the Mafia is exactly the type of thing that will get the Italian American community right in line with the nomination, and by extension in line with the GOP.
Third, the remarks about Catholics on the SC... has anyone noticed that Kennedy most often votes to the left? That he's seen as a "moderate" (read: left-leaning) on the court? Clearly he is a guy who doesn't let religion get in the way of his judicial decisions. So even if Alito were to vote along Christian values in every case (which he likely wouldn't, based on his record), it still wouldn't create a "Christian majority" voting bloc on the court.
As for gender-related arguments, what makes anyone think that a female justice can only be replaced by another female? I seem to remember there was a time when there were NO females on the court, and somehow the system still worked fine most of the time. In fact, the entire civil rights movement, with all the SC rulings on the related issues took place without a single woman on the court. Even Roe V. Wade was decided without a woman on the court. Why do the lefties make the assumption that only a woman can be qualified to replace a woman?
Elliot
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 11/01/05 9:00 am:
turns out that the hit piece is by Devorah Adler .She served as Associate Director for Health Policy under the Clintoons . She generated the talking points for the DNC and Howard Dean . Town Hall has the text . Reid practically begged Dean to tone it down.
Supposedly members of the gang of 14 are beginning to chime in .They are supposedly in favor of the nomination and see no reason for a fillibuster .
The new Dem strategy seems to be to delay the nomination as much as possible and hope that some dirt emerges that sticks . They will probably be able to stall until the new year but I think all the fight has been taken out of them .I just wonder if the moonbats @ Moveon.org will call in their cards and demand a fillibuster .NOW was able to muster 20 protesters in front of the Supreme Court Building yesterday to demonstrate against the selection .
Clarification/Follow-up by Yiddishkeit on 11/01/05 5:50 pm:
Elliot-
[per your comments under my rating]
The appointees (or nominations) such in this past case was pandering to party alignments and that is still a compromise. Also I'd prefer that those judges have term limits...let's say eight years or less.
Bobby
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