Alito Hearing Thoughts

Major Mike

0831 PST

Nina Totenberg runs through the Democratc talking points during the break with her questions to Senator Cornyn. Coincidence or NPR shilling for the Dems?

0834 PST

Sen. Leahy windbags his way through another rambling non-question. Trainer, Corner Man, and Cut Man all yelling "Stay down, Stay down." Referee counting to ten. Leahy gets up. He counter-punches with feckless jabs. He goes down again with a sharp lesson on Presidential War Powers. Gets up again, tries to punch out with oblique reference to some case he knows nothing about. Wobbly, about ready to go down again. Swinging wildly with "Unitary Executive" and weight of "Presidential Signing Statements." He's winded and he attempting to get his legs. He goes down with Alito splitting the punches. Leahy gets back up, counters with "sea story" from his past. Goes down again on irrelevance and rambling. Gets back up with prepared script. Goes back down with mis-charactorization of previous Alito statements. Crowd now yelling "stay down, stay down." Clock is ticking down...he may last the round. Leahy tripping on rhetorical shoelaces. He's barely standing. May survive the lecture he is getting on the tenants of our government. Leahy changes from boxing to fishing. He has lost his compass. He's out of prepared questions, he moves to logicless lecturing. he's grabbing for the ropes, as he pulls out a water polution case...he is about to go down for good with his two part question. Magnesium Electron may be his undoing...gets an education on the legal point of "standing." He's going down. Leahy's wild swing fails to land...he gets hit with Law School 101 and goes down for the count.

1132 PST

Senator Kohl enters ther ring. He's stumbling badly with his awkardly written half-prepared statement. Alito pushes him back into the ropes with the ease eating Jello. Alito dusts him a bit with "hey, every case is different...get the point." Kohl swings back with a feeble "try again." Alito begins to the body...his "two step process" counters Kohl's feeble arm waving. Kohl re-gains some strength with another prepared statment...although reading it seems to be a challenge. Kohl attempts an oblique attack with a Bork reference and a series of tired jabs...abortion, re-apportionment, etc. (see Nina Totenberg's questions as mentioned above). Kohl's corner prepares to throw in the towel as he seems unable to form a question out of his rambling. Alito counter punches...re-apportionment as a motivator to pursue a career...rabbit punches with reference to a specific book...Kohl is staggered. Kohl gets hit with tradtional values...peace and safety...raising children with parental values...guess what, 2006 is different than 1985. Kohl is silent...staggered. Goes to the WaPo for his question...he is going down...looks like he is going to swing with statistics...he misses. He keeps swinging though. He quotes Sunstein out of context using statistics...then leaves himself wide open. Alito reaches back, swings with non-meritoroious cases...cuts Kohl. He lands a KO punch by citing his support for previsous decisions by using the "reasonable" standard. Kohl gasps as he is going down..."for what its worth." Not much. He's out. Alito wipes a single bead of sweat from his brow.

1157 PST

Burgess Merideth, sorry Arlen Specter, feebly lets former lightweight champ Kennedy limp back into the ring with myriad of glove attachments not normally found in a match such as this, and take a swing at the resting Alito. He also lets the incoherent Leahy swing between rounds as well, Leahy falls after swinging. Alito returns to his roadwork.

1222 PST

Feinstein leads off with a false compliment and a head fake. Alito easily counters. Feinstein tries to get the right to do her heavy lifting by meandiering with a long and pointless quote from a previous exhange with Chief Justice Roberts and Specter. She loses her momentum by giving Alito her playbook. This should end the round shortly. Alito hits back with "leaving personal feelings" out of decisions, and the weighing of recent vs. aged court decisions. Feinstein might go Webster with trying to define "settled." Is Feinstein reading Hugh Hewitt?

1306 PST

Leahy slams Alito for having members from the 3rd circuit coming to testify before the committee live on behalf of Alito on NPR. Nina says it was Specters idea. Leahy sarcastically dimisses the idea. Nina begins guiding Leahy through the Dem playbook of talking points. Leahy claims Roberts gave him "clearer" answers...my mouth hits my desk. Good thing Leahy had an open mind coming into these hearings. Shocker...Nina pushes for an example, outside of Roe v. Wade ... Where did you get an answer from Roberts that you have not gotten from Alito? "Not getting the feeling from Judge Alito that we would all be treated the same." Referring to the president being "outside the law."

1320 PST

Feingold steps to the mound...comes in from left field. Mitigation in capital cases? Swung at with "standard of review," and not allowed to disturb State decisions unless the outcomes were "unreasonable." Claims of incompetence in appeal do not equal incomptetence...no reasonable finding. Alito hits the slow curve over the right field fence.

Fiengold tries to tie Alito decsions to Justice O'Connor's seat. Alito counters with applying the standards of the law, not the specific Court seat. Alito hits the Wiggins change up for a double. Feingold goes to the statistical knuckleball...Alito counters with one up the middle over Feinggold's head.

Feingold goes to the Justice Stevens slider. Elected judiciary skewing capital case outcomes? Alito counters with the constitutional response...States' responsibility...hits the Law School 101 liner back through the box.

Alito holds ground against Feingold with a promise to follow the ethical standards set for the Supreme Court. Feingold threw the same pitch multiple times, each hit back through the box.

1340

In response to a Sen Graham question ..."I had nothing to gain from this (Vanguard) case."

1/12/2006

AM

Leahy enters the ring winded and weary...seemingly taking a round off, but he is behind on the judges' card...he'll have to knock out Alito for the win. Seems to be relying on the clinch this round. Is he dancing with Alito?

Kennedy steps into the ring with a huge can of yesterday's garbage and begins throwing it at Alito from the saftey of his corner. Alito's head bobbing and footwork avoid most blows. Kennedy hits himself with a discarded boomerang as he has to acknowledge..."I have made more than my share of mistakes." Way more. Kettle, black. Glass house, stones. Finishes winded as he struggles through the final moments of the round with hot-air-filled, rambling monolouge written by undereducated staffer...no one is listening, brilliant words go into black hole of the spittle bucket.

Feingold flails weakly.

Schumer continues to get pounded with repeated lessons on the differences between being a judge, an advocate, a prosecuter, and an administration employee. Schumer finishes with a pre-packaged combination on the heavy bag that have no effect on Alito's movement in the ring. Schumer leaves the ring yelling "Your mama" and "There'll be no re-match."

Republicans begin to rub down their fighter between rounds. Nina Totenberg continues to shill for the Dems at every turn...certain coincidence.

Durbin leads off with a false compliemnt and a back slapping. Then he changes back to lefty, leads with an extreme and previously explained example. Alito counters with Law School 101 V. 9.0. The blow glances off of Durbin's thick head.

1148 PST

Leahy wearily remarks..."the reason Vanguard was an issue, is because it was made in a sworn statement." Did Leahy support the impeachment of Clinton for lying under oath or not? I can't remember...hmmm. Leahy steps in his spittle bucket by feebly bringing up CAP. Leahy takes one on the nose..."no difference between the statements to the ABA and the Senate." "No bigotry, no prejudices." Leahy throws in the towel.

Kennedy picks up the Vanguard glove...can barely raise it to throw a punch. He misses Alito...connects solidly with the dead horse. The horse is counted out. Kennedy tries to revive the horse with lie..."if it was acknowledged as a mistake, this would have only taken 30 seconds." Horse refuses CPR. Kennedy tries to wrangle ABA down to his level. They show no interest in Kennedy's offer of CPR.

Feinstein steps into the ring...throws in the towel. Alito still standing.

Schumer enters the ring. Swings with "judicial philosophy," "out of the mainstream". Is that it? He actually hit the ring microphone as it was being lowered to announce the winner. AV geek called.

Vanguard dead horse buried by 3rd district associate...he continues to own Vanguard and does not have it on his recusal list...because he has no controlling interest...as per the law...as the standard is set, not to meet some fleeting Senate requirement driven by paritisan politics. Kennedy certain to have horse exhumed.

Anyone else notice how much less hot air is exhausted by legal professionals compared to Senators? Alito's cuts mended, muscles massaged, sweat wiped...looks fresh as a daisy.

1335 PST

Feinstein steps into the ring...looking for a knockout with the dead statisical analysis line of questioning...her idiocy laid bare. Rebuted by the same logic as yesterday..."most come from the fact that the biggest guy won in the district course and were correctly affirmed on appeal." Percentage of reversals are 8.7% in all cases...5.1% in criminal cases. "Standard of review" brought up as appeals driver not the outcome of the original trial. Feinstein wobbly, but swings again with Roe and Webster looking to cement Roe as settled law, by asking judge panel to explain Alito's definition of "settled". They wisely decline to get act as Webster for the mindless one from CA.

Feinstein misses opportunity to ask panel to define the word "is." I wonder why Feinstein misses this opportunity. She walks back to the corner...weary.

1346 PST

Leahy down for the count...wearily declines to ask questions using the Ginsberg deflection, claiming that he doesn't want to ask questions that they may bring before their courts or the Supreme Court should Alito be confirmed...stunning. Kennedy wakes up, calls Leahy Alito, and nods back off.

1352 PST

Durbin throws in the towel. Where have all the Senators gone...long time passing?

1531 PST

Panel member, unfavorable to Alito, gets a dose of questioning, as he attempts to "infer" that Alito has certain tendencies...based upon his extensive analysis of less than 1/4 of the cases Alito has written opinions on, and less than 1.5% of all cases Alito has adjudicated. Real credible witness.