Stoked

While I was a lukewarm supporter of the Miers nomination, largely for procedural reasons (it's the President's prerogative, dadgummit!), I'm genuinely excited about Alito.

And even more excited about not only his long-term prospects - as Ed notes...:

I expect that the Democrats will get 30-35 votes in favor of a filibuster once Alito gets out of committee. If they do consider a filibuster, too many of them will realize that Stevens might get replaced during this term (he's 85 years old). They need that potential stop on Senate business to protect a genuinely liberal seat on the Court -- and enough of them won't agree to tossing it aside before the 2006 elections, when they might narrow the gap in the Senate, in order to keep Alito off the bench. They also won't want to fight over obstructionism again during the next cycle, or the Democrats might well lose more Senate seats in the midterms.

...but over the potential political fuel this gives conservatives. A brutal confirmation fight will provide ample rope for conservatives to hang red-state liberals from during the next election cycle.

This part of the base is, shall we say, motivated.

Posted by Mitch at October 31, 2005 08:43 AM | TrackBack