ALITO (pronounced: a--LIE--to)

The Anti-Christ's name is on everyones tongue (even those who claim to speak in them) but here are some talkers that I think represent the salient points:

• Think Progress EXCLUSIVE: List of Alito "“Murder Board"” Participants; Includes Lawyers Who Approved Warrantless Surveillance: "During this morning'’s hearing, Sen. Russ Feingold noted that the same lawyers who created the legal justifications for Bush'’s warrantless domestic spying program coached Alito about how to answer questions during the confirmation hearings:

  "I'’m going to say that I am still somewhat troubled by the idea that you were prepared for this hearing by some lawyers who were very much involved in promoting the purported legal justification for the NSA wiretapping program…

  I note, for example, that one of the people who participated in these sessions was Benjamin Powell. He recently advised President Bush on intelligence matters and was just given a recess appointment as general counsel to the national intelligence director.
  
  I also see the name of White House Counsel Harriet Miers on the list. And she, obviously, is involved in the president'’s position on this matter."

• Daily Kos: Alito's Ghosts: "Alito wouldn't substantively engage his own record, much less defend it on the merits. That, coupled with the extreme positions he has advocated in the past and a right wing that wants him desperately based on those positions, is all any supporter of an independent judiciary should need to know. He's basically a Bork who's been coached in how to keep his mouth shut. A dull bureaucrat, like Thomas, mixed with the bitter, spiteful divisiveness of a Scalia, who still in his statements this week gives hints of college-era grudges against liberals, elitists, intellectuals, or whatever other catch-phrase bogeymen and bogeywomen he was apparently forced to interact with among the rabble and citizenry of his educational years.
  
  The reason his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP) has been so thoroughly probed is because CAP was, at the time of Alito's membership, an explicitly controversial organization self-dedicated against women and minority existence on campus. It is, according to multiple other figures from Princeton, simply impossible to believe that Alito would not be aware of the high-visibility statements, goals, and tactics of the belligerent and often explicitly racist and sexist group. It's simply not a credible denial, and it demonstrates both the crowd Alito has been willing to associate with, in the past, and his aggressive mendacity when confronted with those decisions in the present."

• People for the American Way: "“Samuel Alito just won't give a straight answer," said Neas. And senators’ questions are helping explain why: Judge Alito doesn'’t want Americans to understand that his record reflects a consistent pattern of ruling against average people and their personal privacy and ruling in favor of corporations and government power."Neas noted that Alito told Senator Dick Durbin that his 1985 statement that the Constitution does not protect a woman's right to choose accurately reflected his view at the time, but he repeatedly refused to say whether that is still his view, and refused to say whether Roe v. Wade is settled law. (Even John Roberts was willing to testify that Roe was settled law.) Alito similarly refused to give a clear answer on choice under intense questioning from Sen. Schumer at the end of the first day of testimony and from Sen. Feinstein today."

The two important points they are making is that first, Alito is dodging and weaving and parsing--he is admiting to nothing, accepting no responsibility for his past 'judgments' and suggesting his mind is an open canvas when in fact it is fully painted with the letters "FEDERALIST". Second, he has been prepped for months as if he were a defendent in a murder case--just like O.J.--so when are the Dems going to smack him with the bloody glove already?

(UPDATE) Here's yet another good insight via Randi Rhodes:

• The “unitary” theory of presidential power sounds too wonkish for Americans to care about, but the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court could push this radical notion of almost unlimited Executive authority close to becoming a reality.