New York Democrat Senator Charles Schumer attempted to sound relevant Sunday, stating that the Senate Democrats may filibuster the Alito Supreme Court nomination if he doesn’t answer what they consider to be relevant questions:

Democrats said yesterday that they may block the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., depending on the answers the nominee gives at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, which begin today.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat and a member of the committee, said that if Judge Alito refuses to answer questions on issues that Democrats deem vital, the party will be more likely to block the nomination.

“If he continuously, given his previous record, refused to answer questions and hid behind ‘I can’t answer this because it might come before me,’ it would increase the chances of a filibuster,” Mr. Schumer said.

In other words, if Judge Alito refuses to discuss a matter which he feels would come before him were he to be placed on the Supreme Court, which by the way the law requires him to do, Chuckie and his brainless buddies are going to filibuster the nomination. Of course, the only reason he is saying this is because they are trying to get Alito to say that he would overturn Roe v. Wade, the liberal Holy Grail. Want proof? Just listen to another world-class idiot, California Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Also yesterday, another Judiciary Committee Democrat said she would likely block the nomination if she concludes that Judge Alito would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that declared abortion a constitutional right.

“If I believed he was going to go in there and overthrow Roe … most likely ‘yes,’” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, when asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether she would filibuster the nomination.

In 1985, Judge Alito wrote an application essay for a job in the Reagan administration, saying the Constitution contains no right to abortion.

It would appear to me that the only answer Judge Alito — or any other Supreme Court nominee could give — is that they can not discuss the matter because it may very well come before the Court. You know, just like Ruth Bader Ginsburg did:

At her 1993 confirmation hearing, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, invoking her ethical obligation as a judge to maintain both the fact and the appearance of impartiality, steadfastly declined to answer any questions about her current views on issues that might come before the Court. As she explained the Ginsburg Standard in answering a question about “sexual orientation�: “I cannot say one word on that subject that would not violate what I said had to be my rule about no hints, no forecasts, no previews.� On issue after issue after issue, Ginsburg applied this standard in not answering questions.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — both Republicans and Democrats — respected the line that Ginsburg drew. Senate Republicans, embracing the principle that President Clinton’s nominee was entitled to substantial deference, joined Senate Democrats in expeditiously confirming Ginsburg by a 96-3 vote.

The chances of the Democrats being this intelligent and classy are practically nil, so I think we can look forward to a lot of fireworks and noise being made by the Democrats on the committee before it is all said and done. Regardless of what the Democrats actually do, the Republicans must make it clear that a filibuster will be met with the deployment of the so-called Nuclear Option swiftly and immediately. I mean, there is no way that the Republicans can be the nice, reasonable guy on this because the Democrats will see it as weakness and try to parlay it into a defeat of Alito’s nomination. In my opinion the Republicans on the Hill have been too nice during the Bush Administration, and it is about time that they asserted themselves on this issue and acted like they are in the majority, not the minority.

A primary focus of the hearings, Democrats say, will be Judge Alito’s position on presidential authority, especially in light of the recent New York Times leak that revealed Mr. Bush’s approval of warrantless spying on international communications involving terrorism suspects.

“Those issues are front and center in terms of the national dialogue,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, on ABC’s “This Week.”

Democrats also have begun challenging Judge Alito’s credibility and integrity.

For instance, Mr. Kennedy criticized Judge Alito for not recusing himself from a case involving Vanguard Corp., which handles the judge’s investment portfolio.

Democrats also criticized Judge Alito for touting his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, which once opposed the acceptance of women at the university.

You know, it takes a lot of b*lls for someone as corrupted and crooked as Ted Kennedy to question anyone’s personal integrity, let alone Samuel Alito’s. I wonder what Mary Jo Kopechne thought of Kennedy’s integrity? Oh yeah, that’s right, he left her to die trapped in a car at the bottom of a pond. I guess we’ll never know.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 9th, 2006 at 1:52 pm by Nick, and is filed under Government, Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.