OPENING SALVO IN BUSH'S ATTEMPT TO FURTHER WRECK THE SUPREME COURT: TEDDY KENNEDY SKEWERS SCALITO

I was so jet-lagged when I got to Madrid. It took almost a week before I was back to normal. I knew that would happen and that's why I decided to spend a few days in Spain-- aside from the fact that I love spending time in Spain-- before moving on to Morocco. I wanted to have my wits about me (although even Fes is a lot less scary than it was just 10 years ago). Anyway, I got home Friday and I'm not jet-lagged at all; or almost not at all. Everything seems to be happening like an hour or two later for me today. So instead of getting dressed at 7, I found myself pulling on my clothes a couple hours later (and I always get my 20 minutes of CNN while I'm dressing). Well today, what I found when I switched on the boob-tube, instead of cookie recipes and right wing propaganda, was an incredible speech by Teddy Kennedy that made me so proud to be a political liberal and so thankful that we still have men like Kennedy in public service.

Some excerpts: "Does Judge Alito’s record hold true to the letter and spirit of equal justice? Is he committed to the core values of our Constitution that are at the heart of our nation’s progress? Can he truly be evenhanded and fair in his decisions? In a way, Judge Alito has faced this issue before as a nominee to the Court of Appeals. I had the privilege of chairing his confirmation hearing in 1990. At that time, he had practiced law for fourteen years, but only represented one client – the United States government. And I asked whether he believed he could be impartial in deciding cases involving the government. In that hearing, Judge Alito said on the record that the most important quality for a judge is 'open-mindedness to the arguments.' He promised the Committee that he would make 'a very conscious effort to be absolutely impartial.' We took him at his word, and overwhelmingly confirmed him to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. We now have the record of Judge Alito’s fifteen years on the bench, and the benefit of some of his earlier writings that were not available fifteen years ago. I regret to say that the record troubles me deeply."

"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture, and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito’s support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling. Under the President’s spying program, there are no checks and no balances. There is no outside review of the legality of this brazen infringement on the civil rights and liberties of the American people. Undeterred by the public outcry, the President vows to continue spying on American citizens. Ultimately, the courts will make the final judgment whether the White House has gone too far. Independent and impartial judges must assess the proper balance between protecting our liberties and protecting our national security. I am gravely concerned by Judge Alito’s clear record of support for vast presidential authority, unchecked by the other two branches of government. In decision after decision on the bench, he has excused abusive actions by the authorities that intrude on the personal privacy and freedoms of average Americans. And in his writings and speeches, he has supported a level of overreaching presidential power that frankly most Americans find disturbing and even frightening."


The occasion, obviously, was the opening on the confirmation hearings for the execrable Sammy Alito, another Bushist lowlife they dug up to insure the courts will be unable to interfere with the Far Right's vile, partisan agenda. I'm not deluding myself into thinking that the handful of progressive Democrats in the Senate will save us from this scourge, but it's great to see them at least putting up a fight. (Update: Salon's Walter Shapiro thinks the Democrats are botching the questioning and, unfortunately, his case isn't as off-base as it should be.) Anti-progressives like Grassley, Biden and Kyle followed Kennedy and their babbling nonsense was dull and pointless. Kyle nearly put me to sleep, so I went for a walk in the hills behind my house and now I feel re-invigorated.

WashingtonPost.com has all the transcripts from today's hearing