AlitohNO

Okay. The Alito Hearings.

Go find coverage somewhere else- I really can't offer anything worthwhile to the Alito hearings- follow Armando's coverage at dkos, or any number of other great blogs. Do I think that he'll be confirmed? Judging from the pathetic treatment by Democrats, yes- there's certainly not enough good resistence to prevent him that I can see.

But this was too juicy to resist: Alito's wife "fled in tears" from the hearings after Republican Lindsey Graham read a list of things that Samuel has been called in public.

Atrios' response:

I appreciate that Alito's wife may geuinely find this stressful and bummer for her, but I just can't stand the fact that our media which can't seem to understand that people who support groups which try to reduce women an minorities on campus, who rule in favor of warrantless searches of 10 year old girls, who will likely declare the uterus state property, who shoot down almost any racial discrimination claim, and who support the practice of striking jurors based on their race might cause a few tears as well.

The media keeps declaring these hearings to be just political theater, and then they focus on the soap opera.

This. Shit. Matters. Pretend you care, or get new goddamn jobs.

Pretty important revelation there- without detracting from Mrs. Bomgardner's clearly difficult time in this political process- the whole focus of the issue is whacked out of control.

But at least one notable person has been watching the Alito hearings: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid:

I have followed the Alito hearings closely. Democrats on the Committee did their jobs by asking tough questions about important issues: civil rights, privacy, environmental protections, the danger of unchecked presidential power and others. Unfortunately, Judge Alito's responses did little to address my serious concerns about his 15-year judicial record.

I have not forgotten that Judge Alito was only nominated after the radical right wing of the President's party forced Harriet Miers to withdraw. The right wing insisted that Justice O'Connor be replaced with a sure vote for their extreme agenda. Four days of hearings have shown that Judge Alito is no Sandra Day O'Connor.

Senate Democrats will meet next week to discuss the nomination.

I hope that means they're developing a strategy that reaches beyond their attempts thus far to "expose" Alito. Because the strategy really needs to be marketed correctly: expose the inconsistencies in Alito's testimony for what they are- as demonstrated by his conservative voting record and hiring history:

A conservative, unobjective justice who has repeatedly changed his story as a means to get whatever job he wants- but once in that job, he'll return to exactly what he's always been.

And that is potentially very very scary.