Alito Alito Rejoice Rejoice!!

Having called the Miers Feint I am not surprised in the least that President Bush nominated Samuel Alito to fill Sandra Dee's seat. The nomination will sail through. It will be a virtual replay of the Roberts hearings. Sure, Alito has a longer public record than Roberts, but despite the nickname "Scalito" his writings simply do not have the invective of Scalia and simply do not contain the sound bites the Left wants and needs to portray Alito as out-of-the-mainstream. The Dems will try to distort Alito's record, but they tried with Roberts, too (remember the french fry case?). Alito, unlike Bork, is mild mannered, looks normal and unassuming (like Roberts) and has both their intellectual firepower (well, at least he's comparable - Bork and Roberts are two of the most impressive minds I've come across).

Alito's longer record will also benefit him in another way - we won't have the same silly arguments about releasing privileged documents from his time as a practicing attorney. Thus, the hearings should move faster than for Roberts since Alito is such a known quality - just look up his decade + of opinions in the federal reporters if you want to see what kind of judge he'll make. The "stealth" argument won't fly, of course, and Democrats will be unable to say they're voting against him because "too much is unknown" (which is the "official" reason most Dems who voted against Roberts gave). Alito is obviously qualified. So Dems will have to oppose him because of his judicial philosophy.

Great. The Republicans have the votes in the Senate to both confirm and end the filibuster so Alito will get confirmed. Plus, the Democrats will likely establish the rules for voting on Supreme Court nominees - judicial philosophy is a perfectly appropriate factor. Thus, Republicans will be free to use it, too. (Hopefully, they'll never need to, but the Dems have to regain power someday, right? Maybe someone said that of the Whigs, too.)

Update: Robert Bork copies me.