Alito

Samuel Alito is Bush's pick for the Supreme Court.  I predict he is savaged by Democrats for being insensitive to women because he doesn't believe in Court imposed abortion on demand.  He will also have to answer criticisms that he's just too darned Italian Catholic, just like Scalia.  After all, when you think of the Supreme Court as nothing but a super-legislature, those kinds of things are important.

Update: Here is Ed Whelan on Alito.  Whelan convincingly argues that Alito is even more qualified for the Court than was Chief Justice Roberts.  But we all know qualifications don't matter to the Democrats.  What matter to them is that a Justice decide based on left-wing policy preferences. Alito is more qualified than Ruth Bader Ginsberg was and he is no more conservative than she is liberal. She was confirmed 96-3.  I'll be surprised if Alito gets any Democratic votes in committee and he'll get no more than five on the floor.  Indeed, the Democrats seem likely to filibuster his confirmation vote.  Alito will expose how dishonest the Democratic Party is when it talks about the courts.  They just want another vehicle to impose their left-wing social agenda, since they rarely get that agenda endorsed by the public.   Here's Whelan:

In selecting Third Circuit judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. for the Supreme Court, President Bush has made a truly outstanding nomination that deserves widespread acclaim. By any objective criteria, it is doubtful that there is anyone now or in recent decades (yes, not even Chief Justice Roberts) whose experience and qualifications better prepare him for the Supreme Court.

Judge Alito’s entire career since graduating from Yale Law School in the mid-1970s has been devoted to public service in the law. His range of experience dealing with difficult questions of federal law is unmatched. After a prestigious clerkship on the Third Circuit, he worked as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey for four years. Then, as assistant to the Solicitor General, he briefed and argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court for four years. He next served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel—the office that was previously headed by Rehnquist and Scalia and that advises the White House Counsel’s office and the entire executive branch on the proper meaning of the Constitution and other federal law. In 1987, Alito became United States Attorney in New Jersey. In that capacity, he was responsible for all federal prosecutions in New Jersey for three years (including the successful prosecution of a Libyan-sponsored terrorist who planned to attack various New York targets). And for the past 15 years, Alito has served with great distinction on the Third Circuit.

Just as the Left attacked Roberts, it will attack Alito. But President Bush has again selected an outstanding nominee whose intellect, character, experience, and, not least, proper understanding of the role of the courts will earn the deep respect of the American people and of all fair-minded observers.