Reid sends a shot across the bow

October 31, 2005

Harry Reid warned Bush not to nominate Samuel Alito. Bush’s base had other ideas.

Now Reid is following up with a shot across the White House bow.

“…[T]he Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people.

“I am disappointed in this choice for several reasons. First, unlike previous nominations, this one was not the product of consultation with Senate Democrats. Last Friday, Senator Leahy and I wrote to President Bush urging him to work with us to find a consensus nominee. The President has rejected that approach.

“Second, this appointment ignores the value of diverse backgrounds and perspectives on the Supreme Court. The President has chosen a man to replace Sandra Day O’Connor, one of only two women on the Court. For the third time, he has declined to make history by nominating the first Hispanic to the Court. And he has chosen yet another federal appellate judge to join a court that already has eight justices with that narrow background. President Bush would leave the Supreme Court looking less like America and more like an old boys club.”

On CNN yesterday, Reid said an Alito nomination “would create a lot of problems.” How many? We’re about to find out.

I hope we ( the dem’s ) stand strong against this man.

  • Standing strong against a steamroller works as long as the driver cares about your humanity enough to stop before running you down. They’re cutting a billion dollars out of the food stamp programs. Two thousand GIs and at least 30000 Iraqis are dead because they couldn’t be persuaded to open the idealogical box and let a ittle real daylight in. Think they would care if even 200 million Americans said Alito should be banned from the SCOTUS?

    Hah.

    They have the votes. This misogynist will sit on the Supreme Court.

  • I don’t know if his nomination will be as smooth as all that… there is the fillibuster, and I’m thinking that with a weak POTUS (going to ground, as it were, appeasing the radical base), the moderates within the GOP side won’t vote for the changes necessary to bar the fillibuster from the Senate.

    More interesting timing from the White House- first thing back from Camp David he lobs this turd into the punch bowl. Nice distraction from Libby, food stamps, Official A, etc. This is contentious enough to provide some real cover. Meirs was a bit too much of a joke to do that.

  • Don’t count on Specter to slow down this nomination. From MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9875669/

    WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sent strong signals Monday that he would use all his clout to help federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito win confirmation to the Supreme Court.

    Time and again Specter used his Monday afternoon press conference to defend President Bush’s nominee to the high court and to justify some of his controversial rulings.

    “I think he’ll be an excellent witness,” Specter predicted. Drawing an implicit contrast with ex-nominee Harriet Miers, who withdrew last week after getting a tepid reception from the Senate, Specter said “he’s a real legal scholar beyond any question.”

    Specter did not say he’d vote for Alito, but all his other comments were positive.

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