Via The Washington Post:
The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee reached an agreement yesterday evening to wait until next Tuesday to vote on the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court.
The agreement alters the schedule announced Friday, during the final moments of Alito’s week-long confirmation hearings, by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who said he would conduct the panel’s vote today. His announcement sparked a quarrel with the panel’s ranking Democrat, Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), who said he would seek a delay. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) vowed that a vote in the full Senate, which has final say over all judicial candidates chosen by the president, would take place by the end of the week.
Democrats expect Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito to be confirmed, but they want to minimize a GOP victory before the State of the Union address.
In the end, Specter and Frist essentially acknowledged the prerogative Democrats have under Senate rules to postpone any committee decision for one week. GOP leaders grumbled that Democrats had reneged on an earlier agreement about when the Alito vote would take place—an agreement that Democrats denied ever existed.
Well, there’s a shocker. But let’s be clear here: the Dems didn’t lie. They simply didn’t have the same access to their own internal discussions and intelligence as the GOP had. In short, they were duped!
Bet the NSA is involved in this outrage, somehow.
As Republicans express confidence that they have mustered enough votes to confirm Alito, the timing of the committee’s action and of the full Senate vote may not dictate whether he joins the court. But the timing plays into the short-term political calculus of both parties, as well as of a coalition of left-leaning advocacy groups that are continuing to air advertisements in an aggressive—and, so far, relatively ineffective—campaign to build broad public opposition to the nominee, who is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, most of whom have indicated they will vote against Alito’s confirmation, were reluctant to cast their votes before a meeting tomorrow of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus, at which senators plan to consider their strategy for the final phases of the confirmation process.
Democrats, anticipating that Alito ultimately will be confirmed, are trying to deny the White House that victory as long as possible, particularly in the days before the State of the Union address President Bush is to deliver Jan. 31. Although Senate rules do not enable them to defer the confirmation vote until after the speech, Democratic senators would like to reduce the victory period immediately before the speech, one of the broadest public stages the president commands each year.
The State of the Union “is the 800-pound gorilla lurking over the debate,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). “That’s part of the strategic calculation.” Manley also said, “This is an important vote, and we are not going to be rushed into anything.”
[My emphases]
Baldly partisan, revoltingly petty, personally unfair to Judge Alito and his family, and instituted—admittedly—for no other reason than to punish the GOP for its “victory” in nominating a qualified (and unanimously approved by the ABA ) SCOTUS replacement justice by shortening the period in which the story will receive extensive media play in advance of the State of the Union Address.
And yet somehow, I find the candor here refreshing.
What THAT tells you about today’s Democratic leadership is up to you to interpret. I’m just sayin’ is all…
(h/t Patterico—where a spirited debate has erupted in the comments. Unsurprisingly, our friend actus is over there pushing Alito’s racism-by-proxy, while simultaneously defending the rehabilitated Robert Byrd. Who, let’s face it, can’t be a racist, because he’s a Democrat. Whereas Alito? Well, a conservative So…QED and SLAM THE GAVEL!)
The d’Emocrats need to change their symbol from a donkey to a monkey shitting in its hand and slinging it.
(the above post was inspired by spurwing plover)
Has anyone else noticed Kos has been especially nasty and unhinged lately? I don’t think he’s taking the miserable failure of his “BorkAlito” campaign very well.
I fully expect his head to explode during the confirmation hearing.
So the Dems delay, by a few days, a lifetime appointment. I think I’d let them Dems have every one of those “victories,” while the GOP gets their own victory. Know what I mean?
Forbes, give them an inch and they will take a mile. That proverb fits the Dems “like a glove”! Ha!
Man I’m good.
Hmmm.
Another day. Another time the Senate Republicans look like fools.
I’m not trying to defend the Repubs (they often look and act like fools) but this is another one of those arcane Senate Rules situations, sorta like the closed chamber deal. Not a whole lot the Repubs could have done.
acthole wants to reopen the hearings so he can satisfy himself that Alito has renounced his racist upbringing via his embrace of NR.
First off, why would you expect the Demo-rats to honor an agreement? They can get away with any duplicitous, outragous behavoir cause they know their ‘friends’ in the MSM will NEVER call them on it.
Secondly, why does the GOP always play wiffle ball when the donkeys are playing hardball? It’s never smart to bring only a knife to a gun fight. After getting plugged more times than I can count, you’d think they’d have figured that out by now.
Third, yes, the GOP gets the last laugh when Alito is comfirmed and the ‘Bush Court’ begins to erode the years of liberal judicial activism.
Lastly, the more I hear about Hillary’s upcoming “coronation in 2008” and think about her stacking the court with Buzzi Ginsberg clones, the more I pray that Sirhan Sirhan has a nephew, if you know what I mean.
Yes, I DO know what you mean. Why would you think that calling for the murder of an elected official would gain you any points here?
You know, there’s a point to this that I think we ought to consider. In general, political consultants get paid a share of the advertising buy.
Like a 10 percent share.
How much do people like Bob Beckel make on this week’s delay.
Sounds to me like someone’s getting taken to the cleaners.
Dickweeds.
Word.
yeah, no death threats here.
Unless Jeff’s klonopen is at stake. That’s different.
Actus’ all-out McCarthyism regarding Alito says an awful lot. About actus.
B Moe: Actually, a chimp at the San Diego zoo once did exactly that to me: shirt in his hand and threw it at me. Even today, I find myself respecting him much more than any Democrat I’ve ever voted for….
Oooooh,I bet the POTUS is shaking in his cowboy boots! Their last “strategic calculation” led to live pictures of the weeping wife of the harassed candidate.
– Apparently the Dembulbs don’t yet think they’ve mined every possible bit of bad PR and feckless base pandering out of this dead horse. I guess once you’ve stuck your dick in the wood chipper theres not much point in worrying about your balls.
They just want a little more time to savor their moment of, erm, triumph.
Just another example of the most corrupt Democration congress in history! (sarcasm)
Gee, it was almost 6 weeks ago when the Dems shut down the Senate to highlight their concerns that the Republicans were reneging on their promise to complete Phase II. Remember? Haven’t heard a thing about it since. Has anyone here heard anything?
Now this…another political stunt.
Dems…full of sound and fury signifying nothing in particular.