Virtual Confirmation

By a vote of 72-25, the Senate voted to cloture today, virtually assuring that Samuel Alito will receive confirmation to the Supreme Court tomorrow.

"Some Democrats and at least one Republican who voted to end debate are certain to oppose the nominee in the actual confirmation vote on Tuesday. But since only a simple majority is required for confirmation, Samuel Alito could be a member of the Supreme Court by Tuesday afternoon." [NYT]

"In the end, only 24 of the chamber's 44 Democrats went along with the filibuster, a maneuver allowed under Senate rules to block a vote by extending debate indefinitely. It was also supported by the chamber's lone independent, Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont." [CNN]

"Now, on the eve of what is expected to be the Senate confirmation of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court, coming four months after Chief Justice Roberts was installed, those planners stand on the brink of a watershed for the conservative movement. In 1982, the year after Mr. Alito first joined the Reagan administration, that movement was little more than the handful of legal scholars who gathered at Yale for the first meeting of the Federalist Society, a newly formed conservative legal group. Judge Alito's ascent to join Chief Justice Roberts on the court "would have been beyond our best expectations," said Spencer Abraham, one of the society's founders, a former secretary of energy under President Bush and now the chairman of the Committee for Justice, one of many conservative organizations set up to support judicial nominees." [NYT]

So, here we are...ready to give another Bush nominee a free pass to a LIFETIME appointment. The jury is still out on Roberts, but while he was accomplished, Alito is anything but. He has proven himself to be an ideologue. Then you've got Senators like Herb Kohl. You sir, are a tool. You leave me breathless with disappointment. Even if you vote against confirmation tomorrow, you are still a complete disappointment.

Score another rubber-stamp victory for Bush.