Everyone Loves Alito...

At least that is the perception one gets from reading the nothing but glowing accounts of the man nominated by President Bush for the Supreme Court.

But the bit of journalism that indicates that Samuel Alito will be given a thumbs up by Congress comes from the NY Times. Yes, the bastion of the left, the paper that never met a conservative it didn't like, today published a massive story containing only positives stories about Alito.

In one way it is kind of scary how the Times manages to dig up everyone from a person's past, but from a local store owner to fellow high school students to college professors were called and asked their opinion and nobody had anything bad to say.

What might be the jewel in the story that proves Alito, despite his leaning to the right, is a great pick for the job is the following:

At Yale Law School, where he was in the class behind Justice Clarence Thomas, Judge Alito was widely regarded as one of the smartest students, said Peter Goldberger, a classmate. Mr. Goldberger, who describes himself as a staunch liberal, said it was always enjoyable to get into a discussion with the young Mr. Alito.
"We fundamentally disagreed over just about everything," he said, "but it led to cheerful jousting."
Mr. Goldberger, who has also argued dozens of criminal appeals before Judge Alito, said his style on the bench - as the member of a three-judge panel who talks the least but asks the most perceptive questions - recalled their Yale days.

If a confirmed liberal believes Alito is fair then Sen. Chuck Schumer, Pat Leahy and Ted Kennedy, who looks more like Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons with each passing day, should put aside their unfair rantings and help confirm Alito.

A quick sample of their dissenting opinions"

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, accused Mr. Bush of making a "needlessly provocative nomination" to appease conservative critics of Ms. Miers. "Instead of uniting the country through his choice, the president has chosen to reward one faction of his party, at the risk of dividing the country," Mr. Leahy said.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said his first impression was that Judge Alito was not in the mold of Justice O'Connor, the swing vote he would replace.
"Many of the opinions that he has written over the last 15 years cast real doubt on whether he can be a fair, mainstream, albeit conservative judge," Mr. Schumer said.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, called it a "nomination out of weakness rather than strength" and said Democratic suspicions had been raised by the strong support Judge Alito had quickly drawn from conservatives. "They are shouting from the mountaintops for this Alito," said Mr. Kennedy, who had praised Judge Alito during his confirmation hearings for the appellate bench.

Each reacted in a typical knee-jerk fashion that is unbecoming of a United States Senator. Even Hillary Clinton, whom is not well loved by this blog, had the common courtesy and intelligence to say she had to study Alito's background before issueing a statement.

Now, in all fairness hard core conservative Congresmen would have reacted the same way if their position was reversed, but that does not make this situation correct. It merely shows the morally bankrupt state in which our elected officials flounder.