Published: January 19, 2006 10:47 pm         

Alito should be confirmed

The usual suspects are coming out to line up against the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, Patrick Leahy and a few others have announced they don’t intend to vote for Alito’s confirmation.

They cite what they perceive as Alito’s deference to executive authority or law enforcement authority as their reasons for opposing him.

“At a time when the president is seizing unprecedented power, the Supreme Court needs to act as a check and to provide balance,” Leahy said. “In an extraordinary era of government intrusions into the lives of ordinary Americans. . . it is difficult to have any confidence that his nominee will serve as an effective check on his patron or on the government. . . .”

It’s all just so much hot air, and it’s really pretty meaningless. It come as no surprise these Democratic leaders would oppose Alito following their contentious questioning in the hearing process. They really have no good reason to oppose him, other than their political posturing against George W. Bush scores them points with their base.

Even as contentious as the questioning was during the hearings, Alito was pretty forthcoming with his viewpoints. He answered their questions more liberally than John Roberts did when he was going through the hearing process for chief justice.

One Democrat — Ben Nelson of Nebraska — has said he will vote for Alito’s confirmation “because of his impeccable credentials, the American Bar Association’s strong recommendation and his pledge that he would not bring a political agenda to the court.”

The hypocrisy by Alito’s opponents has been evident in this whole process, and it simply isn’t going to work. There is no smoking gun or good reason why Alito should not be confirmed. Just because the Democrats don’t think he will abide by their own political agenda is no reason not to confirm him.

No one really can predict for certain how a judge will perform on the bench. All we can hope for is our Supreme Court justices will listen to all the arguments, weigh the information objectively and apply the law. There’s no reason to believe Alito would act any other way, and that is why he should be confirmed.