I have doubts that Sammy Alito is the foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing nutcase a lot of folks here are making him out to be. Perhaps the details yet to emerge in the coming weeks will answer that question.
Two wonky attornies and legal bloggers, Tom Goldstein from SCOTUSblog.com, and Howard Bashman of How Appealing, both claim that a thorough look at Alito will reveal a candidate less doctrinaire than a Brown, Luttig or Owens would have been.
Bush, in fact, may be counting on Alito being just conservative enough to appease the right-wing without meeting the "extraordinary circumstance" that would lose the seven key centrist Democrats.
But the right and left are itching for this fight, and I hope they get it anyway, despite my doubts.
My reasons why, below...
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