Samuel Alito’s time before the Senate Judiciary Comittee has come to an end, and as both CNN and ABC recognize, it seems clear that he will be confirmed when the full Senate votes at the end of the month. The Washington Post made this observation about the final day of Alito’s testimony:
Samuel A. Alito Jr., an appellate judge who could shift the Supreme Court significantly to the right, appeared headed for the high court yesterday after completing three days of interrogation without a serious misstep.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee made a final stab at challenging Alito on presidential powers, the death penalty and other matters. But their efforts sometimes seemed halfhearted, and even the most liberal advocacy groups acknowledged privately that they saw slim hopes of preventing his confirmation later this month in the full Senate, where Republicans hold 55 of the 100 seats.
While I think that Alito’s confirmation will, on balance, be a good thing, I can’t help but be disappointed in the what has become of judicial confirmations in modern America. In that vein, Brad Warbianny makes two excellent points about the Alito hearings that are worth repeating:
I think Alito should be given a Purple Heart simply for sitting through it for three days (as his wife left the room crying) without beating Teddy Kennedy to a pulp.
If I’d been Alto, I would’ve wanted to beat up somebody after what happened yesterday. Having to sit there and listen while men like Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden attack your character is bad enough. Watching your wife have to leave the room in tears just makes it worse.
Brad’s second point is this:
It?s disappointing that confirmation hearings have become political events. There are serious issues to be discussed when confirming a Supreme Court justice, but the system has become so politicized that no serious discussion can be had. Every issue must be skirted so that nobody has a single clear idea what the nominee actually thinks. The longer we avoid this debate on nominees, the longer we avoid this debate in the general public, and it?s a debate we need to have.
Agreed, but why is it that it seems that judicial confirmations only become politicized when its a Republican President appointing the judges ?
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