Look, over there, it’s a far right Supreme Court nominee…

January 9, 2006

Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination raises any number of compelling angles (will Dems filibuster? will GOP centrists bolt?), but the one that seems to be on the minds of many Republicans has less to do with Alito and more to do with political timing.

Republican officials say they are so worried about the Abramoff problem that they are now inclined to stoke a fight with Democrats over the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court in an effort to turn the page from the lobbying investigation.

This is what it’s come to for Republicans in 2006. Questions over political corruption have become so serious, they need to point to a far-right Supreme Court nominee whose opinions and philosophy are rejected by most Americans as a way to help their political standing.

As for using a Supreme Court nomination to distract attention away from damaging scandals, we saw a similar strategy when John Roberts was tapped for the high court.

Sources said the timing of an announcement had been moved up in part to deflect attention away from a CIA leak controversy that has engulfed Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove.

“It helps take Rove off the front pages for a week,” one Republican strategist said.

So many scandals, so few Supreme Court vacancies.

The problem is that Dems won’t fight about Alito over abortion, they’ll fight over the limits of executive power, which will keep the snooping scandal front and center, which Bush needs even less.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place 😉

  • Ah, if only it were true. My prediction is that the Dems will delay the vote a week and then Alito will be confirmed along party lines.

    And the beat goes on…

  • I was thinking about this today. It occurred to me that talk of filibuster has come more from the press and the GOP than it has come from the Democrats. The GOP want Democrats to filibuster – to the point of ramping up the rhetoric – because it plays to their talking points.

  • Frankly, if we have to do this it’s better to get it out of the now than later. As long as nobody else on the Supremes retires then we’ll have a clear field for all the juicy goodness to come with Abramoff, DeLay and the rest of them.

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