a short time later i sat down with my not-quite-right cup of coffee and picked up the newspaper, which went to press sometime last night before the nomination announcement. the first thing i read was a small article at the bottom of the front page which started with the following line:
With the announcement of a new Supreme Court nominee expected as early as Monday, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, warned President Bush on Sunday not to pick one of the candidates said to be on the president's short list, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.so let the fun begin. considering how miers crashed and burned because it wasn't crystal clear that she sat on the crazy batshit wing of the republican party, scalito's record is hardly surprising.
my prediction? i think this nomination will end the filibuster compromise that averted the "nuclear option" showdown earlier this year. i don't know if alito will be confirmed or not. i guess the odds are with confirmation, but someone this right wing is sure to give even moderate republicans some pause. and if the republicans decide to go nuclear, no one knows what will come of that.
what i think would be really interesting is if alito's nomination is actually defeated: with one candidate defeated by the right (miers) and the other by the left (inshallah alito), what would bush do next? i realize it's way early to think about this stuff, but a man can dream.
