MANIFEST MODERATE DESTINY

AND THE WORD OF THE DAY is where will moderation of the tumultuous selection of Samuel Alito for the Supreme court end?  The battle lines are drawn on left and right, but in the middle will this battle be decided. [story]

The roughly half-dozen GOP senators who support abortion rights are scrutinizing Alito's dissent in a major 1991 abortion case. If they determine that his judicial record or his answers to questions signal a willingness to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion, they will fall under heavy pressure to oppose him, said congressional scholars and analysts.

AND WELL THEY SHOULD come under pressure.  Roe may seem the lightning rod of this debate and the flash around it illuminating, but far more is at stake than Roe and women having control of their bodies and hence their destiny.

"I think the moderate, or pro-choice, Republicans will likely determine the fate of this nomination," said University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional expert.

Julian E. Zelizer, a Boston University history professor who has written extensively on Congress, agreed. "This nomination is going to put pro-choice Republican senators in an extremely uncomfortable position," he said. "The reality is that most Republicans who are not strong pro-life advocates were much happier when the abortion issue was not on the front pages."

But Alito's nomination seems destined to put it there.

MODERATE REPUBLICANS decide not merely the destiny of  Alito.  More they decide the destiny of this country.  Soon we will find just how “moderate” these Republicans are and what our national destiny will be.


ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING

A SCALIA BY ANY OTHER NAME [Michael Scherer/Salon] As Freudian slips go, it was pretty major. Shortly before noon on Monday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., appeared before cameras in the Senate Radio and TV Gallery to voice his concerns over the latest Supreme Court nominee. "The initial reaction of myself and most Democrats is the president missed a real opportunity," Schumer said, as he dodged and weaved through reporters' questions about how Democrats would respond. "Nothing is on the table and nothing is off the table. Let's learn more about Judge Scalia.' 

THE HERETIK KNOWS the right will say Alito should be judged for who he is, not for whom Democrats fear he might be.  Alito is "qualified" and a president should have his choices respected.  The right is wrong.  The sense of balance on the court is at stake. Roberts for Rhenquist? Right for right? Some murmurs, but okay.  1896 for 2005?  No.

POOF!  MIERS?  WHO’S THAT? [Dahlia Lithwick/Slate] It's magic. Almost as if the whole Harriet Miers debacle never happened, President Bush has rapidly retreated from his judicial preferences of last month. The urgency of filling Sandra Day O'Connor's seat with another woman has been erased; the importance of balancing the too-scholarly court with a practicing attorney has evaporated; and the need to put an outsider onto the court is long forgotten. Suddenly George Bush's vision for what the high court most needs maps perfectly with that of the movement conservatives who sank the Miers nomination. Never has a pander felt so good.

THE HERETIK FINDS it astounding the way Bush lackeys claw back for control of the narrative of this administration.  With Alito, we should fall back in awe at the shock of The Man stepping up again after falling down the rabbit hole of  Libby which was not contained in the rabbit hole of Miers he fell down before that.

BUSH MAY BE FORGETFUL and Libby surely will be in court, but The Heretik knows: stupid is as stupid does. And the more wise do not forget that Bush damaged himself severely with his choice of Miers as the bestest he could do. Are we now supposed to respect the judgement of a man so previously daft?  When one considers where the balance of the country’s jurisprudence will be struck for decades, it is worth considering the balance of the one who makes the picks.  Bush seems a little um nuts these days.  When that is so manifest, we might better seek our destiny elsewhere.

THE HERETIK ASKS: TRUE IDENTITY POLITICS? We are all in this now.  And maybe some will see finally that “women’s issues” define the frontier of human rights. Or if we will return to the time of frontier justice.  Anybody buying the Manifest Destiny of Alito and Bush?  Look to Laura at Media Girl for some outstanding analysis day in and day out here

HIGHLY SUGGESTED
ALITO LEANS RIGHT [Charles Lane/WaPo] In 1991, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. voted to uphold a Pennsylvania statute that would have required at least some married women to notify their husbands before getting an abortion; a year later, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor cast a decisive fifth vote at the Supreme Court to strike it down.

THE HERETIK NOTES for those who have been asleep.  Planned Parenthood v Casey is the Alito case of note, the sticking point is spousal notification on abortion.

A DISSENT? [Professor Bainbridge]  . . such a requirement is not an extreme view in American society. To the contrary, as Jim Lindgren demonstrated today, a majority of Americans supported spousal notification laws. Of course, calling a majority position "extreme" is classic paternalistic liberal doublespeak. Using constitutional inkblots and extra-constitutional penumbras to invalidate laws supported by such majorities is, at best, judicial legislating. 

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