Alito Sitting Pretty, But Parties Battle On

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 2006 — -- Republicans and Democrats agree Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court seems assured. But both sides still hope to get some additional political mileage out of the fight.

In a speech to Republican National Committee members today, top White House political adviser Karl Rove said that Democrats on the Judiciary Committee "came across, fortunately, to the television audience, as mean-spirited and small-minded. And it left a searing impression." Saying Alito was the kind of judge most Americans want on the bench, Rove quoted former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan's wallstreetjournal.com column: "I don't think Democrats understand the Alito hearings were for them not just a defeat but an actual disaster."

For their part, Democrats have tried to delay Alito's confirmation vote, giving interest groups time to run ads, and giving senators another opportunity to frame their opposition -- something some aides complain was not done particularly effectively during the committee hearings. Alito's nomination is expected to move out of the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has said he wants the full Senate to vote by the end of next week. But Democrats may try to extend the floor debate, arguing that "every member deserves a chance to speak" on the nomination, according to one aide.

Unlike John Roberts, who won the support of 22 Democrats last fall, Alito appears headed for a much narrower, virtually party-line vote. So far, just one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has said he will vote for Alito. And Alito appears unlikely to win over more than a handful of additional Democrats, if any.

One possibility is Sen. Kent Conrad, like Nelson a "Red State" Democrat who voted for Roberts. Conrad said today he plans to hold a second meeting with Alito next Tuesday -- a meeting his staff said came at the White House's request.

But other Democrats who supported Roberts -- including Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Ken Salazar, and Sen. Max Baucus -- have already come out strongly against Alito. And a few moderate Republicans, such as Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, could also wind up voting against him.

The most common theme emerging from senators lining up against Alito has been on the issue of presidential power. In a speech at Georgetown Law School on Thursday, Leahy said: "There is no reason to believe that Judge Alito will serve as an effective check and balance on government intrusion into the lives of Americans. In fact, his record suggests just the opposite."

Salazar offered a similar argument for his decision: "Judge Alito would place too much power in the hands of the president of the United States, at the cost of the protective system of checks and balances built into our Constitution," he said in a statement.

Also on Friday, the Judiciary Committee released Alito's written responses to follow-up questions from senators. In the questions, Democrats tried to pin Alito down further on issues such as abortion -- they asked, for example, why he seemed to avoid using the term "settled precedent," a point in the hearings that generated comparisons to John Roberts (Roberts said in his confirmation hearings that he regarded Roe vs. Wade as "settled as a precedent of the court").

In his response, Alito wrote "The term "settled precedent" does not have a precise meaning in the law, and for that reason I generally tried (albeit not successfully) to avoid using the term in responding to questions during the hearing." Democrats called Alito's answers "unresponsive." For their part, Republicans noted that several of the Democrats who sent Alito questions didn't bother to wait for his answers before announcing they would be voting against him.