Arlen is prediciting that ScAlito the Hun will face far more questioning than did Roberts.
Specter, who supports abortion rights, said he will start the hearing by pressing Alito on his abortion views. "There are a lot of big, big issues that he has to answer, but this is the one which has captured the public's imagination," the chairman said.
"Judge Alito will have to answer more questions than Judge Roberts did," Specter said.
Roberts managed to deflect several questions about his views on abortion and other topics -- sometimes to Specter's irritation -- but still won Senate confirmation comfortably on Sept. 29 after lawmakers in both parties hailed his mastery of constitutional issues. Republican and Democratic senators will be tougher on Alito, Specter said, in part because his two 1985 memos seem to state a vigorous and enthusiastic opposition to abortion rights and some forms of affirmative action programs.
Specter said he will ask Alito, "What assurances can you give to this committee -- and the American people and all the litigants that will come before your court -- that your personal views will not have any impact, any weight, on your judicial decisions?" The senator said, "His reception is going to depend upon how credible he is."
As good as this sounds, the article, however, starts with somewhat of a bomb -- Arlen dictating the moves of dems.
But Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said he senses little enthusiasm among Democrats for a filibuster to block Alito...
Yet, I do agree with the rest of the statement, which was
...and he believes the nominee's fate will turn largely on "how credible he is" at the panel's confirmation hearing, which begins Jan. 9.
Credibility is everything, and so far, ScAlito hasn't shown much of that. As much as senators and the press have focused on ScAlito the Hun's stance on abortion, and the fact that this man has been stripping abortion rights from his bench for 15 years, there are a number of civil rights issues that are just as important. Please, don't misconstrue this to think that abortion rights don't matter to me in my opposition to ScAlito the Hun, because they do. They matter very much so. But, when I take a look at all the so-called "special-interest" groups that have been effected by his rulings, fighting his nomination becomes the broader civil rights fight for me.
Abortion rights, and the broader women's rights; workers rights, including sexual discrimination in the workplace; voters rights. These are not small issues, they effect our entire population.
This is why I have found the idea of ScAlito the Hun on the bench of the Supreme Court to be so repulsive.
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