Duke Alito

(Duke Leto was the patriarch of House Atreides in Frank Herbert's classic novel Dune.)

I haven't said much about Alito in awhile. I've been conserving the few drops of venom I had left after the Miers fight. I left it all on the field over that nomination.

(For those who acted like we were tearing a hole in the very fabric of the universe by opposing Miers, isn't it a good thing we had that knock-down drag-out argument? Is it not a far better prospect that we are getting Alito on the SC, and not Miers?)

But truth is, Alito doesn't really need any help. He is doing just fine in the nomination hearings. Though, given the sere winds blowing from the Democratic side of the room, they should be called the nomination blathering on and on and on and on-ings. There's not a lot of actual "hearing" going on.

The reason the Dems aren't doing much to hurt Alito is simply because they don't have truth on their side. I believe there is such thing as objective truth, which is why I am not a postmodern, and so I believe if your basis for argument is not rooted in truth, you will not succeed.

The Dems are grasping at straws. Ridiculous things, such as trying to portray his association with a group called the Concerned Alumni of Princeton as evidence he wants to burn crosses on lawns. Tigerhawk does an excellent job of outlining what the Dems are trying to do, and why it is just fluff floating in the wind.

Just this morning, as Hugh Hewitt points out, Sen. "Do it for the grandchildren" Durbin made a backhand attempt to associate the mining tragedy in West Virginia and Alito in the same breath. Durbin brought up a case that had to do with the coal industry, and safety regulations. He all but said "Wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean!"

Durbin tried to imply it meant Alito usually sides with big evil child-enslaving corporations, and not with the Noble People's Workers Collective. Durbin tried to imply this meant Alito had a bias, and not an open mind. Yet, Durbin indicated he wanted Alito to side with the Noble People's Workers Collective. Now, if Alito came to a case already predisposed to rule in favor of one side, wouldn't that be precisely the kind of bias the Dems are trying to hang around his neck?

On that coal case, Alito said it was a matter of interpretation, what did the law say about which body had jurisdiction in that case, the federal level, or perhaps OSHA or the state. And therein is the conservative approach to the law. What does the law say? Not, what does the ACLU say, what does Barb Boxer say, what does Kate Michelman say. What does the law say?

This nonsense will go nowhere, because thankfully there are still enough people in this country of sound mind and judgment that will recognize if this is all the Democrats have, they have nothing.

Alito, an eminently qualified candidate, will be on the Supreme Court.