Questioning Alito

The official take, via the media at large, on the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings is that Democrats are being vicious partisan bullies who are grasping at straws to find anything possible to knock down Alito. Why, Mr. Drudge and others are reporting that Alito's wife left the hearing room in tears after seeing her husband attacked (though it was Sen. Graham's comments that triggered it)! The Republican members of the Committee are reiterating this point, taking every chance possible to apologize to Alito for the behavior of their "liberal colleagues".

With possibly some exceptions (such as the mindless blathering of Sen. Biden), it seems what Republicans are trying to define as 'attacks' are merely some intense questions. But is that not the point of all this? To ask the tough questions? I feel bad for Ms. Alito if she's been upset by the hearings, but it was wrong for anyone to expect a cakewalk. And surely, given the extremely high stakes of this nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States, is the main issue to be focusing on the emotions of Alito's family? As Atrios noted, "The media keeps declaring these hearings to be just political theater, and then they focus on the soap opera."

In addition, Wolf Blitzer on CNN said that that the Democrats have prejudged Alito from the beginning and are "delivering an early verdict" on him. This may be true (I'm not a psychic; I won't claim to know what any Senator is thinking), but it is blatantly hypocritical to paint this as a Democratic problem. It can just as well be argued that every single Republican on the Committee has already decided Alito is in.

In his opening statement on Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (whose statement/apology to Alito prompted his wife to leave the room today and who turned his party's Abramoff troubles into a punchline yesterday) said that "It's possible you could talk me out of voting for you, but I doubt it. So I won't even try to challenge you along those lines. I feel very comfortable with you being on the Supreme Court... I expect that most all of us, if not all of us, will vote for you." So he's admitting his mind was already made up before the Q&A process even began. That's a more open statement than any given by the Democrats. If they all had made up their minds, why even bother showing up for the questioning?

In addition, having watched/listened to pretty much the entire hearing so far, I have noticed that the Republicans are throwing softballs at Alito. The toughest question I recall a Republican asking him today was whether he agreed with "one man, one vote". Alito said that he did. And how else would he have answered that question?

Much of the Republicans' time has been spent scolding Democrats (and I don't recall the supposedly mean Democrats scolding Republicans for their Gannon-esque questioning) for their behavior, praising Alito for his admittedly impressive upbringing and education and record, and continuous personal ranting about the evils of abortion (Sen. Coburn, I'm looking at you) and activism.

So yes, the media critics are correct that these hearings have been a masturbatory farce (with occassional moments of genuine insight) to some degree, but it's wrong to pretend that one party over the other is responsible for that.

These accusations of bullying and personal attacks by the Republicans and the mainstream media meant to discredit the Democrat's concerns are all too similar for me to the President's remarks yesterday warning Democrats not to attack him too hard on the war because that would be dishonest. Since when did the Republicans get all sensitive? Since when did asking questions become dishonest?

One could also make the point that Republicans lost the right to decry the intense grilling of Alito after the way in which they handled the Harriet Miers nomination. She never even made it to a confirmation hearing. Extremely partisan Republicans (the Kristol crowd, etc) torpedoed her nomination in a far more explosive and well-promoted way than liberal groups could ever of dream of (Miers' name was watercooler talk; Alito buzz hasn't remotely reached mainstream Bork status). Why? Because Ms. Miers was not qualified? No, that they didn't care about. They demanded her withdrawal because she didn't pass their ideological - yep you guessed it- litmus test on key issues of conservative concern. I'll tell you this, I opposed her nomination because of her lack of qualifications, but by the end I almost felt bad for her on a personal level. Was Ms. Miers ever driven to tears by all the demands for her withdrawal? If she was, Drudge didn't tell me about it.

And having now gotten their desired nominee, the right insists that we should accept him without question.

Are the Democrats being tougher than perhaps had been the case in previous confirmation hearings? Sure. It may be a reflection of these divided times, but this may also be necessary to make up for the lack of adequate questioning on the other side. In addition, there are very serious concerns with Alito's honesty. Too often has he played the "I can't remember" card when controversial parts of his past are brought up. He has answered more questions that Chief Justice Roberts did for sure, but his answers have often been dodges and political wordplay.

As Sen. Schumer noted yesterday, Alito's burden in these hearings is "triply high" because he is replacing a respected swing vote in a time where critical issues of civil rights and presidential power may be coming before the Court. This is an extremely important hearing and should not be treated as a rubber stamp. I do not approve of either side bullying Alito (and no one's crossed that line yet, in my personal opinion), but I do want Alito to be questioned as thoroughly as possible. This is a lifetime appointment and he can be only be questioned once. It's critically important that we get it right, especially if his confirmation is said to be a given.