Thursday, January 12, 2006

Wrong for the court?

Ah, what a difference a day makes...

While I take most things with a grain of salt, and I usually cringe at the sight of our lovely "representatives" (I use the word lightly) in Congress making their theatrical plays when in the spotlight, I have to admit that I found some of yesterday's testimony in the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings troubling.

And this after I was impressed the day before.

But my "troubles" aren't necessarily with what Judge Alito said - his answers were generally palpable - it was what his answers said about him.

There are a lot of things in my life that I don't remember - but not many that I ever put on job applications. Judge Alito's forgetfulness over his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton seems at odds with a man who can remember in great detail each of hundreds of case decisions.

So, is Sam Alito a man who pads his resume on a job application with affiliations he really didn't have and truly can't remember? Or is Sam Alito a man who can have public selective amnesia about controversial issues in order to not make himself look bad. Either way, the answer does not reflect kindly on him as a Supreme Court candidate.

In addition, while I again get frustrated that the Democrats still focus so much on Roe, it is interesting that Judge Alito now appears to hold out Roe as the only topic he will not call settled law and will use the "this case may come before the court so I can't discuss details" excuse on - although yesterday he was willing to discuss just about anything else even though cases involving those topics may also come before the court.

So, the picture we now have of Sam Alito appears to be much more blurry than when these hearings began. Is this a man who does and says things in a manner such that they will best serve his own interests? Is this a man who does in fact have some personal agendas? Or is this a man who will truly rule from point of law and precedent, albeit with a conservative leaning?

Your guess is as good as mine.

But in the end, I believe we will all find out soon enough, as it appears Judge Alito is indeed headed towards confirmation.

All we can do now is hope for the best.

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