From purely a political perspective President Bush does not deserve to have Judge Alito confirmed by the Senate.
No President who has arguably violated the United States Constitution and therefore committed impeachable offenses deserves the privilege of appointing any person to the judiciary. Scholars and politicians on both sides of the aisle strongly believe that President Bush's policy of spying on Americans without a warrant is a violation of the law and the Constitution and, if true, rises to the level of an impeachable offense. So long as President Bush refuses to come clean on the spying allegations, so long as Bush remains tainted by accusations of violating the very Constitution he swore to defend, he is unworthy of the honor of appointing any person to the judiciary. Let Bush prove that he didn't violate his oath of office before his political appointments are given consideration on the merits.
That said; confirming Judge Alito for a lifetime appointment to the United States Supreme Court is a terrible mistake on the merits because of his history as a jurist and his well known belief that the President may create law, not merely enforce the law. This wrongheaded idea, known as the "Unitary Executive", is terrifying in light of President Bush's illegal policies of (1) torturing prisoners in violation of US law and International treaties to which the United States is a signatory and (2) spying on Americans in violation of both the FISA laws and the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
If judge Alito is confirmed prior to hearings on the NSA scandal, including preliminary hearings on impeachment, the Senate will in effect be giving President Bush a free pass. This will also give President Bush a 'ringer' on the Supreme Court who, based on his prior activist history, will likely relish the idea of being able to finally put the idea of the "Unitary Executive" into practice. While there is no guarantee this would occur, the mere possibility should give all Senators pause before rewarding President Bush with this confirmation.
To reiterate, only upon proving that he did not violate the law or the United States Constitution should President Bush be given the honor of having his nominees to the judiciary considered for confirmation by the Senate.
note: this is a combination (or remix) of a couple of posts I have made in the past hour