WHY EVEN HAVE THE HEARINGS? (via Robert Schwartz):

Liberals Can't Solidify Alito Opposition> (DAVID ESPO, 11/29/05, AP)

So far this year, the civil rights and women's groups opposed to President Bush's conservative court nominees have been rebuffed, rebuked and rejected. And that's just by Senate Democrats.

Now, in the early stages of the most momentous Supreme Court nomination struggle in nearly 15 years, these organizations seek Democratic cohesiveness and then hope to enlist enough Republicans to keep Judge Samuel Alito from taking the swing seat held by Sandra Day O'Connor. It won't be easy. [...]

If their chief goal is to prevent a sharp conservative shift on the courts, it's not yet clear how far Senate Democrats will fight Alito, knowing that Bush would probably follow up with another, possibly more conservative, replacement. Party leaders have shown more eagerness in confronting Bush when it has been compatible with their overriding objective of gaining seats in the 2006 elections.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, chairman of the Senate Democrats' campaign committee, underscored their political objectives recently to Henderson and other representatives of groups opposed to Alito's nomination.

In a private session, Reid and Schumer urged the groups to show restraint when lobbying Democrats from states that Bush won in 2004 - senators from Nebraska, Arkansas, the Dakotas and elsewhere who probably will be the most tempted to support the appointment. Officials who described the session did so on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the conversation.

How do they get a single Republican when the Democratic leadership is acknowledging that opposing him would alienate voters?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 29, 2005 7:25 PM