Random notes on Day 3
January 11, 2006
Once again, Russ Feingold was playing at a higher level than everyone else, and was pretty obviously the smartest person in the room. He asked insightful questions about new and relevant topics (the murder boards, death penalty reviews), he listened to the answers, and managed to have an interesting, topical, and revealing back-and-forth with Judge Alito. His twenty-minute round today was just as good as his first round yesterday. Among other things, he got Alito to promise under oath to release the list of administration officials who helped prepare him for the questioning, including those questions regarding FISA and the wiretapping scandals.
Herb Kohl and Dianne Feinstein were also very good. Lindsey Graham had an interesting opening round of questions, but spent today’s session playing “pretend to make the missus cry”.
Does Senator Specter’s much-vaunted commitment to reproductive rights extend beyond asking a nominee about Roe, talking about the super-precedent of Casey, and then voting Yes no matter what meaningless answer the nominee gives? The pro-choice interest group Republican Majority for Choice, which counts five GOP senators, including Chairman Specter, among it’s advisory council, today announced its opposition to Alito’s nomination. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of that.
I cannot listen to Joe Biden speak without pondering all the possible meanings of “oleaginous”. Put a sock in it, already. You did the same thing during the Roberts hearings.
Ditto for Chuck Schumer. You had one good line, about mothers-in-law, and that was about it.
Chuck Grassley is almost certainly the stupidest man in the United States Senate, and Tom Coburn is clearly insane. Jeff Sessions splits the difference between them.
Sam Alito’s demeanor is so much like that guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark that I kept expecting him to say, “We are… heh heh… not thirsty”.
This story is all that needs to be said about Sam Brownback.
Mike DeWine could almost be a good senator. He would start in on a unique line of questioning — the ADA, for example, or the 1st Amendment in the public sphere — but then suddenly drop the topic without any attempt at a conclusion, and start talking, apropos nothing, about abortion.
I’m a big fan of Ted Kennedy, and he’s indefatigable in defense of civil rights, but half the time he’s just acting out a parody of himself. The parody half was the only thing on display today.
The rest of the senators made no impression on me at all. There were words coming out of Jon Kyl’s mouth, but they didn’t form themselves into coherent thoughts.
Sam Alito is an extraordinarily bad judge.