The Alito Hearings

After reading the list of "troubling" cases from Judge Alito's past, I'm convinced - go ahead an confirm him.

For the first time since Robert Bork, a conservative with a long paper trail has been nominated to the Supreme Court. After digging through his fifteen years on the bench, the opposition came up with nothing. There are some cases they don't like but he was always on firm legal ground.

In fact, Alito's cases show high respect for the law. In some cases he specifically says that the law as written should be applied one way but suggests that the law should be rewritten by the legislature. These are not the actions of an activist judge.

Alito will probably be much more centrist than either side admits. He will act as a drag on the court, keeping it from bypassing the legislation and writing new laws on its own. That is a good thing and part of the separation of powers that the left keeps talking about. Of course, the only separation of powers that they are interested in are ones that limit President Bush. Since the 1960s, liberals have bypassed the legislature by appealing directly to an activist court.

Those days are long gone and the best that liberals can hope for are justices who are reluctant to overrule prior judgments, even if the judgments were flawed. That is what the current fight is over.

Plus many on the left feel that they have to oppose any Bush nominee, either because of promises they made to their base or because of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

The New York Times has come out against Alito, declaring that O'Connor was mainstream conservative and Alito is a dangerous extremist. This is rather silly and unbecoming such an important paper.

According to the Washington Post, the public doesn't really care about the confirmation hearings. That's bad for the opposition but good for the nation.