The Alito shuffle

Senate democrats are now suggesting they will grill Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on the NSA wiretapping issue as part of the confirmation hearings:

Democrats yesterday said that if Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. wants to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, he must explain his past support for broad presidential power and whether he would allow warrantless wiretapping of the kind practiced in a recently disclosed NSA program.

Gee, you don't suppose there was any internal coordination between the New York Times and the democrats regarding strategy for the Alito confirmation hearings?

News about Alito's past views on executive branch powers first hit the streets in early November in a Boston Globe story. Remember, the Times had been patiently sitting on their NSA story for over a year when they suddenly decided to release it in December despite strong protests from the president about its potential harm to national security. Times brass said it was going to be released anyway ahead of Risen's book, but it's hard to believe there was no advance cocktail party chatter between the major players.

Regarding the one week delay the democrats are considering on the Alito vote,

Democrats contend Alito is too conservative and could undermine some rights if confirmed. Some of their liberal supporters have urged Democrats to do whatever they can to block the nomination, including a filibuster.

One has to wonder if the block Alito ends justify the NSA leak means. By the way, it stipulates "liberal supporters" as if these Congressional democrats aren't liberals themselves. That's a good one.

DRUDGE EXCLUSIVE and MORE 1/6/06

Drudge is flashing headlines suggesting the dems are out to "destroy" Alito. Maybe the headline should have read, "dog bites man".

The central figure in this destruction is a gentleman name Stephen Dujack. Just a little googling on Mr. Dujack suggests he's a fairly well-learned and well-traveled liberal who recently edited the Foreign Service Journal. His connections within the Foreign Service don't automatically imply a cabal with the anti-Bush brigade at the State Department, however it wouldn't come as a total shock if he was ideologically sympatico in that regard. His musings are also linked at various lefty blog sites, like this one, for instance.

For all I know he's the most principled human being on the planet, but it's also likely he's a stock liberal vehemently opposed to conservatism in general, who is probably choking on the thought of yet another arch enemy walking beneath the chiseling of the Ten Commandments and through the front door of the Supreme Court. In case you hadn't noticed, everything seems to boil down to root social issues on both sides, more so on the left I believe, where many are reaching for the panic button.

So please, someone throw cold water on the democrats. They seem to have forgotten the electorate elected Bush and the conservative Congress. There's a vacancy on the court, Bush will fill it, and he will choose a conservative. Alito is well-qualified. Case dismissed.

IT BEGINS 1/9/06

Adam Liptak's NY Times article on the Alito confirmation hearings is literally littered with inferences to executive branch powers.

Gee Adam, it sure helped to have that super secret NSA spy story broken a few weeks ago, eh? You know, the one you guys held for a year because Bush pleaded that breaking it might damage national security?

Without the NSA story backdrop it would have been much harder to get media attention focused on Alito's crusty old opinions during his time in the Reagan administration. I know, I know, sometimes things just fall into the ole lap.