[Supreme Court]

What About Alito Now?

Another ripple that I could have mentioned in yesterday's post is the effect the assisted suicide ruling may have on the Alito nomination. Now that "moderate" John Roberts has weighed in on the fringe right, are actual moderates wondering about Alito--whom everyone agrees is right of Roberts? It's all well and good that Alito is polite and pleasant, and that he has a supportive, emotional family. But it's a reminder that all of that means bupkis when he's handing down draconian rulings.

Anyway, it appears to settling the Dems into strong opposition. Only one (Nebraska's Bob Nelson) has come on record in support of Alito. While good liberals gnash and wail at the tepid resistence Dems have given to Alito, a strong rebuke of him in votes may be important for the future. When Dems failed to oppose the Iraq war, they lost credibility in challenging it later (wrongly, but that's politics); opposing radical Alito now will give them credibility later when they point to the radical court the Republicans wrought.