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...
Two reasons:
While most progressives have been playing strong lip service to the Senate filibuster tradition, and respect for "checks and balances", frankly those are the convenient poses of whichever party is out of power.
Forcing the GOP's "nuclear option" and "blowing the place up" will throw the current government into more gridlock, a preferable state to accomplishing anything in the interim before the 2006 election.
I am confident that by using the nuclear option, the GOP will reap the blame by voters for that gridlock. I am also confident that the accumulated toxic waste of GOP dominance and hubris will allow the Democrats the chance to retake the House and the Senate.
Secondly, I agree with conservatives and liberals alike that we do need to settle the constitutional question of privacy once and for all. A lot of folks in the middle want to avoid that fight--mostly because they are afraid they'll lose it.
I have faith that we can prevail in the public mind on the great privacy debate. My only fear is that the Democratic Party will fail to take full opportunity to articulate the debate.
If Alito is confirmed nonetheless, that doesn't mean we've lost that debate. The 2006 election will score that result.
And if we regain Congress, having a judicial conservative who defers to the elected legislature won't be all bad.