Here’s Justice Alito!

Dubyah’s replacement nominee for Supreme Court Associate Justice is Samuel A. Alito of the 3rd District Court. Alito is from New Jersey, a Roman Catholic and has what appears to be rather solid Conservative credentials. The Republican Right should be thrilled, and the Democrats are already foaming at the mouth.

Apparently this guy’s nickname is “Scalito” since his philosophy is considered to be a clone of Scalia’s, but I’m not so sure.

I read a summary of some of his recent opinions and, yes they’re conservative, but they don’t strike me as dogmatically so as Scalia’s do. The AP quoted former appellate judge Timothy Lewis who said, although he has ideological differences with Alito, “There is nobody that I believe would give my case a more fair and balanced treatment. He has no agenda. He’s open minded, he’s fair and he’s balanced.”

I’m not certain that, given the right wing slant of the administration and congress at the moment, one could ask for much more than that. At least given that he’s a Catholic and from New Jersey, it’s unlikely that he’ll be driven by religious dogma as I’m convinced Miers would have been. Then again Scalia and Thomas are no gems in that respect.

I could be wrong, and I may live to regret it, but I feel much more comfortable with Alito than Miers. The fact that the Democrats seem to be reacting precisely the opposite makes me wonder where the hell they’re coming from? They had to KNOW they were going to get a hardened conservative, but I at least find Lewis’s input encouraging.

Should be interesting to see what happens. You think we can keep O'Conner on the bench until after the next Presidential election? As you can see, I'm ever the optimist, thinking, hoping (praying?) that the Democrats manage to get their act together by 2008. I'd even vote for Hillary Clinton over Bill Frist (and I can't stand Clinton!).