Attacks On Alito Finally Over

Democratic senators Patrick Leahy, Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin, and Joe Biden had their fun last week, attempting character assassination on a fine man (and Catholic) in Samuel Alito. As I've said before, this kind of thing is just disgusting. That so many seem to support these smears is even more troubling.

When Judge Alito's testimony was finished on Thursday, attention turned to "witnesses" who appeared before the judicial committee to testify on behalf, and against, the judge. Amazingly, and not reported on any news that I've seen (find a picture of the panel without these senators sitting there -- it doesn't exist), the Democrats I mentioned above didn't stick around to the witnesses. Their 15 seconds of fame apparently over, they either didn't show up for the hearing at all, or left after just a few minutes. John Hinderaker at Power Line had this to say:

This is truly extraordinary. Extraordinary that Judge Alito's colleagues have turned out to defend him against the Democrats' smears; extraordinary that the Democrats themselves couldn't be bothered to stick around to hear what this distinguished group of judges had to say. After all, if the Democrats were actually interested in what kind of judge Sam Alito is, these are precisely the witnesses who could tell them. If the Democrats really thought that Alito's judicial opinions reflect poorly on him, these are exactly the people who could answer their questions, and, if they are correct, confirm their fears. But the Democrats apparently knew that wasn't going to happen. The only conclusion one can draw is that the Democrats knew they were smearing a fine man and a fine judge. But the fact that they didn't even have the decency or respect to stay and listen to Alito's colleagues is disgusting.

I agree. He points out that at least Senator Diane Feinstein stuck around and was respectful to the witnesses. As a constituent, I owe her an email of praise for that. But for the rest of these clowns, it seems like just more of the same, unfortunately. Again, you don't see conservatives behaving this way.

One of the big issues the Democrats were hammering the judge on had to do with his dissent in a case in which a 10-year-old girl was "strip-searched" in the course of a narcotics investigation. They put this out there as a slam against the judge, that he would never rule for "the little guy" and would always side with government. On its face, listening to what I just wrote, for example, it may seem like a slam-dunk argument that Judge Alito was acting immorally. And in fact notorious liberal lawyer Erwin Chemerinsky even argued for this, knowing full well the details of the case. But take a close look at the case and it quickly becomes obvious that Alito was in the right and the majority judges were twisting technicalities in order to side against the government. Which side was the activist here? Check out this rundown of that case, it's an easy and interesting read.