Alito Hearings: The Democrats' Katrina (Robert Parry)

[kpete]

Alito Hearings: The Democrats' Katrina
Robert Parry
January 17, 2006

For a constitutional confrontation at least five years in the making, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee looked as prepared to confront Samuel Alito as FEMA chief Michael Brown did in responding to Hurricane Katrina.

As with the hurricane that zeroed in on New Orleans days before coming ashore, there should have been no surprise about Judge Alito. He was exactly what the Republican base had long wanted in a Supreme Court nominee: a hard-line judicial ideologue with a pleasant demeanor and a soft-spoken style.

Indeed, Alito has been such an unapologetic supporter of the right’s beloved Imperial Presidency that Alito’s one noteworthy assurance—that George W. Bush was not “above the law”—was essentially meaningless because in Alito’s view, Bush is the law.

Yet the Democrats were incapable of making an issue out of Alito’s embrace of the “unitary executive,” a concept so radical that it effectively eliminates the checks and balances that the founding fathers devised to protect against an out-of-control president.

more at:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060117/alito_hearings_the_democrats_katrina.php

[DanCa]

1. I hope they fillibuster this creep

I wont leave if they dont but I sure as hell hope they do.

[mom cat]

4. Keep up the pressure for a filibuster.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. No one died - that makes this a little different

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Pity Robert Parry didn't

send along some of these arguments and potential questions to Dem members of the Judicial Committee beforehand. Bit late now in hind sight.
SG:eyes:

[Cell Whitman]

5. as he has said

it's a pity the democrats with five fucking years to prepare were so inept.

[bunkerbuster1]

6. You wish, bitch!

I think something like 18% of Americans polled were paying attention to the Alito hearings.

Whereas, virtually everyone was on the edge of their seat when NO was flooded.

This belongs in the Hall of Fame of Stupid Freeper Analogies.