Vote No on Alito
Republicans make much of the American Bar Association's commendation of Judge Samuel Alito as a Supreme Court nominee. And yet, I cannot find any instance in the Clinton administration where a Republican Senator thought it was even of interest that the ABA found a candidate qualified for judicial office. Not once, as far as I can tell, did one of them mention an ABA-endorsement during those eight years. And in those days, the ABA played a federally mandated quasi-governmental role in vetting judges. Apparently, the opinion of the legal profession’s governing body is only of value when it recommends Republican judicial candidates; it is evidently worthless when it recommends a judge with a more liberal outlook. The ABA used to be given early and special access to documents, as they had done since President Richard Nixon first gave the ABA special powers to investigate judicial candidates and offer opinions which would help guide the Senate. President George W. Bush stripped them of that access and authority, thus rendering their opinions infinitely less qualified, and correspondingly of little value, compared to the preceding thirty years. But his administration still chooses to trumpet their opinions when they find one of his candidates to be qualified, insofar as they can tell while being effectively blindfolded. If the President wants the ABA to be taken seriously, he needs to show the same regard for the ABA which Nixon and Reagan and his father accorded the ABA, and restore the ABA's place in the judicial process. Otherwise, their opinion is of no greater value than, well, mine.
And as far as I'm concerned, a Supreme Court candidate who has trouble with honesty, who is deliberately evasive when not completely deceptive in his answers, and who has shown no limit to his deference to Presidential power, is not qualified to be a judge at any level. Remember, this administration has been illegally wiretapping what may amount to millions of phone calls, this administration feels free to hold people without warrant or even charges, and torture people despite a law signed by this same President explicitly and comprehensively banning torture. The last check on this overweening executive is the judiciary. We desperately need a new Justice on the Supreme Court who believes in limited government.
Judge Alito believes that limited government is a dirty word. Some people think the universe is infinite, and infinitely expanding. Judge Alito seems to have mixed up the US government with the universe.
10:36:22 PM 
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