A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham
As a Democrat and an American, I'm ashamed of the Alito confirmation hearings
 

January 18 2006
Counterbias.com
STEVE HOROWITZ
 

There's a simple rule about Congressional hearings. The bigger they are, the greater the number of people watching them, the stupider Congress looks.

The Alito confirmation hearings reach a low exceeded only by those of Clarence Thomas. The bluster, the posturing, the showboating, the Constitution-waving, the tedious repetition, the tit-for-tat pettiness, the failure to listen, the charts, the bickering over the competence of the Congressional mail service -- all numb the mind and shame the nation.

How many times must Samuel Alito explain his views on stare decisis? Or Roe v. Wade? Or why he didn't recuse himself in the Vanguard case in 2002? Or why he upheld the strip-search of a 10-year-old girl? Or why he joined -- proudly, as he noted on a 1985 government job application -- the Concerned Alumni of Princeton? Or that he's his "own person"? Or that, once on the court, he'll keep an open mind, and treat all parties with equal fairness, and not take away the right of women to vote and force blacks back into slavery?

None of this should suggest that there aren't some real questions about Alito. He did, as a government attorney, once write, "The Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion," now explaining that it was just "an accurate statement of my views at the time." He did once describe Robert Bork as "one of the most outstanding nominees" of the 20th Century, saying now that he was only toeing the line of his employer -- the Reagan administration. He did once promise to recuse himself from cases affecting his financial holdings with Vanguard, and then conveniently forget to do so -- just as he forgets joining or being a member of the anti-women, anti-minority CAP. And his defense of the 10-year-old's strip-search is almost -- no, it is -- laughable.

But let's face it: Sam Alito is going to be confirmed. He's a conservative jurist (as Charles Schumer just [12:42 EST Thursday] complained, "You almost always choose the rightward choice") nominated by a conservative president. But that's the price we as a nation must pay for having allowed a hateful demogogue into the Oval Office twice. If Alito's pained explanations during these hearings show him to be less than a man of unshakable convictions, that's probably a good quality in a judge. And he's not going to allow himself to be pinned down on any issue that could jeopardize his case for approval. That includes everything from abortion to government support of religion to presidential war powers to eminent domain.

In other words, he's a good lawyer.

But the Democrats aren't buying it. There was a point at which they could reasonably have raised their issues, compelled Alito to address them, scolded him for being -- as he's often been -- evasive, and then, having shown some spine and accomplished all they could hope to, suck it up for the inevitable confirmation. But no. Instead they've brought up the same "concerns" day after day for four days now, because of how "troubled" and "puzzled" they are.

Well, they're still puzzled. With the added benefit of having driven Mrs. Alito from the hearing room in tears, having surely driven down their already dismal poll numbers (perhaps to the depths of their Republican counterparts), and having further alienated the public from the political process.

All while the alarmingly unbalanced Tom Coburn has reports linking abortion to breast cancer entered into the record, and his fellow Republicans plant sloppy wet kisses on the nominee over how much integrity he has, how forthcoming he's been, how brilliant and qualified and open-minded he is, how wonderful his family is, and how fantastic it was that his father came from Italy.

It's all a disgusting, dismaying disgrace -- as Woody Allen once said, a travesty of a mockery of a sham. But quite unintentionally and unexpectedly, it may have accomplished something miraculous: fostering in a take-no-prisoners liberal partisan like me a favorable opinion of someone nominated by George W. Bush. Because this guy has the patience of a saint. And that seems like appropriate judicial temperament to me.

Postscript, from the Associated Press: Supreme Court nominees are so mum about the major legal issues at their Senate confirmation hearings that the hearings serve little purpose and should probably be abandoned, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden said Thursday.

"The system's kind of broken," said Biden, a member of the Judiciary Committee considering the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito.

"Nominees now, Democrat and Republican nominees, come before the United States Congress and resolve not to let the people know what they think about the important issues," such as a president's authority to go to war, said Biden.

As the committee headed into its fourth day of hearings on the Alito nomination, Biden told NBC's "Today" show that a better solution might be to skip hearings and send nominations straight to the Senate floor for a vote.

"Just go to the Senate floor and debate the nominee's statements," the Delaware senator said, "instead of this game."

That was once standard practice. Until 1925, Supreme Court nominees were not expected to testify before a committee, and their nominations were sent straight to the floor, according to the Senate Historical Office.