Alito hearings a farce--yet quite revealing

Dionne's editorial, "A Hearing About Nothing," hits the nail on the head. Listening to Alito, I can feel the smoke he's blowing up my .... He won't answer even the easy questions. He won't even answer questions about his own personal opinions about general issues. How can anyone vote for a person without getting any feeling about him other than he's suspiciously evasive?

I kept wondering how a judge would react if a witness answered this way in a courtroom (not that Alito has been a trial judge), because instead of answering questions, he launches into some academic smoke-blowing that is insulting to the person asking the question--always a democratic senator, because the Republican questioners only kiss Alito's ass and tell him to continue stonewalling the mean, evil Democratic senators.

What a farce. Dionne gets it right: "when their party controls the process, Supreme Court nominees can avoid answering any question they don't want to answer." I wish Dionne's conclusion would happen: "an extended debate in which his evasions will be made perfectly clear to the public "

My own opinion is that Roe v. Wade will not be overturned--I don't believe even a conservative court could do so, because it is definitely settled law. And everyone taking part in these proceedings know it. All this talk about Roe is aimed at a segment of Republican constituents who have been strung along by Bush and the Republican machine to believe that Roe might be overruled--they're still being fed a line so they'll keep voting for the neo-cons. But Alito dare not say what he knows because he won't be supported by that segment of the party if he speaks the truth.

What worries me more about Alito is his favoring corporations over worker's rights--that's clear from his record. He also seems unwilling to voice an opinion about executive power, and that's worrisome. No one acts this "hidey" if they have nothing to hide.

And Dionne gets it right about this being an opportunity for Rep's to attack Dem's for asking the correctly probing questions. Afterall, Alito's wife cried when Sen. Graham recited all the wickedly pointed questions the Dem's have been asking (and the news mistakenly reported that the Dem's made her cry--it was R-Sen.. Graham) -- and we mustn't diminish the power of a crying wife in the enactment of a farce.

Clearly, this is attempt to subvert the Senate's obligation to "advise and consent" and an effort instead to bow down to the increasingly powerful executive branch. One thing the Democrats have accomplished is that they have brought to public debate the "unitary executive" theory espoused by the Bush admininstration. This article in The Nation, "The Limits of Power: Questions for Alito" explains why this Bush imperative is dangerous to our democratic process.