There is a fundamental lack of respect for the principles of the United States Constitution evident in the way Republican Senators are responding to Democratic objections to Samuel Alito.
Virtually the only thing Republicans will say about Alito relates to his experience, which they present for consideration as though no actual point-of-view the man has can be allowed to influence whether he should be confirmed.
Many Democrats have voiced very serious objections to the combination of things Alito said in the past and what he did not say in his Senate confirmation hearings.
“He’s a professional” is not an acceptable response to those objections.
Here we have Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who has promised the voters of his home district that he supports a woman’s right to an abortion yet he is poised to vote in favor of Alito, putting Alito in a position to reduce or eliminate that right.
The abortion question is not the most serious one involved in Alito’s possible elevation to the Supreme Court. His support for expansion of presidential powers just might be. We have already seen the Bush administration’s contempt for separation of powers, not to mention for separation of church and state. On both of these points, Alito is, by his own admissions in years past, a ready tool by means of which Bush will be able to limit checks and balances along with the separation of church and state.
It is outrageous that Bush nominated such an extreme right-winger to the Supreme Court and equally outrageous that Republicans in the Senate are supporting the nomination. In the year 2000, Bush did not have a majority of the popular vote. In 2004, his margin of victory, as close as it can be determined, was quite small. Yet he behaves with contempt for the large percentage of Americans he knows disagrees with him.
If the Senate were interested in making itself an instrument of democracy, it would reject Alito and tell Bush that he must nominate a more moderate figure.