Redstate

"There's no way you can do an honest hearing by the end of December, or a fair hearing," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Or did he say, "There's no way [Judge Alito] will get an honest hearing by the end of December, or a fair hearing."

Does tht mean that Judge Alito will actually get a fair & honest hearing after December?

Maybe he's concerned that he won't be able to sit under the apple tree back home to review the files on Judge Alito. Maybe the bench has been put back in the barn, all the apples harvested, and the frost is on the pumpkins.

Maybe.

This will be another 'bright line' test for Specter, Frist and the Senate GOP - if they cave in to these asinine demands, the "Not One Dime!" cry will be back in all its glory.

There is simply no reason to ask for a delay for someone who's been a Circuit Court Judge for 15 years. Anything that anybody wants to know about this guy is already out there. There is no need for "extra time" to go rifling through closets all over Philly.

The Senate GOP must reject these dilatory tactics.

This is their first test. They'd better not fail the Nation. Or us.

Just a hunch, but I think the Democrats are going for the nuclear option - just not the tactical one we were thinking of. Instead, it's the Impeach Bush Nuclear Option, and they need to punt the hearings back a few months to buy time. According to what appears to be the plan, they should have Bush out by then along with Cheney and we're left with a fearful, impotent lame-duck administration incapable of pushing any nomination. They're counting on O'Conner jumping in and staying on board until the next election is held (and wouldn't she under these circumstances?).

Today's secret session was misreported as an effort to take the focus off of Bush's bird flu announcement. It's the smoke for an imaginary fire that they were expecting stronger indictments from Fitzgerald to fuel the impeachment drive. They already had the talking points on Cheney.

Part of the reason for my hunch is predicated on what appeared to be a sudden surge in the Kos and MoveOn worlds of impeachment and criminal acts talk - as if it was getting pushed from somewhere. Let me ask... what do they have to lose now by playing this extreme card? And if you had no ethics, no issues and no future, wouldn't you?

scoove

Part of the reason for my hunch is predicated on what appeared to be a sudden surge in the Kos and MoveOn worlds of impeachment and criminal acts talk - as if it was getting pushed from somewhere. Let me ask... what do they have to lose now by playing this extreme card? And if you had no ethics, no issues and no future, wouldn't you?

No ethics? I'm sorry, say what you will about the rest of the issues, things that are based on personal interpretation and such, but ethics?

You must not have read a poll recently. And if you don't believe in polls, you must not have noticed the recent indictments. And if you don't care about the indictment, you must not care about the ongoing investigation into Bill Frist. And if you don't care about Bill Frist... well, you can just follow the line on back.

There's a lot that both parties need to work on, but Republicans especially need to work on ethics. Absolute power corrupts, I suppose.

...depends on a PRO-impeachment majority in the House.

Okay, how many Republicans in the House want to impeach Bush?

Nope. I can see Cheney going and being replaced by Condi, but that's only because Dick is getting tired and probably wants to duck out and get into the fly fishing business. But the whole impeachment effort doesn't surprise me. It's all of a piece with a party that has forgotten what impeachment did to the Republicans when they had a majority in both houses.

Democrats are in the grip of their Sturmabteilungen, torchlight-parade crowd. How else can one explain their return to the politics of Gingrich, 1998? They figure that hatred will gin up the Base, and they rationalize it by telling each other that they been lied to.

By the way, the whole impeachment thing is political stupidity, especially in wartime, but I will bet you that Reid just gulled several thousand Kos Kids into sending 20 dollar checks to the DNC.

Only the Left Wing Guevarists would be stupid enough to buy into what Reid was doing today. And they did. But it was really about fundraising.

Which is really what this was all about: giving Howard Dean Mo' Money. Donks are such suckers.

Now, after reading what I posted in my 'Reason behind their madness' diary, I am not so sure.

I guess they think they can take power by basically a coup.

If so, they are showing up to a gunfight with a knife.

...if you don't want to respond in the same subthread, stick the name of the person that you're talking to somewhere in your comment.  That way we avoid confusion about who says or believes or notices or cares about what.

Thanks in advance!

Moe

Sorry, about that, I'm really not sure what happened!

I was responding to the post from "scoove." Won't happen again. :-)

Doesn't the Senate take rather long breaks for both Thanksgivin and Christmas?

I would imagine that the Democrats don't want to have the hearings have a significant break in them which is likely to happen if they begin in November or December.

and tells Leahy and his "we can't do it that quick" excuse to take a hike, and the hearings will be held sometime withint the next month, with a vote sometime in December.

Let's face it, Alito has been onthe "possibles" list for a long time.

The Dems and their interest groups long ago had their research and hit pieces ready to go.  The only reason Leahy wants more time is A) to give the likes of NARAL et al plenty of time to trash Alito, and B)  to keep O'Connor on the bench for as long as possible (which is one reason I do not like the way she resigned from her position-it doesn't actually leave a vacancy, and the dems can play delay tactics).

It often makes me wonder how in the world some of these Senators get elected if they spout such stupidity to their voters.

As for Specter, he is a RINO, but unfortunately we are stuck with him.

There is no reason this process should take more than a month.

If the Republicans had any guts and leadership, they would just simply say here is what we are going to do and if you Democrats want to participate then that's fine.

Why do we need to go through this process when everyone already knows the outcome.  Oh, I forgot, TV time.

The problem that Republicans have is that they think they can work with the Democrats and the Democracts will in return be civil.  After many years the Republicans have not learned a darn thing, this approach does not work.  What the Democrats do is play the Republicans along, then stick it to them when they can.  Republicans need to once and forever accept the fact that Democrats not only dislike you, they HATE you and will do anything to destroy you.

Only one indictment and a minor one at that.

The Democrats are imploding and if there are any sane Democrats they have to be wondering what is going on.  How am I going to be able to spin this back home?

This stunt was so stupid and has already backed-fired it makes you wonder what has happend to these Liberals.

Rush is commenting on this today and picking up on the thread that Rockefeller is in play. Regarding Reid not having a majority, that's not the issue. This is all smear and play to the base with real weapons and increasing stakes.

Incidentally, I thanked our state's Democratic Senator for the closed session yesterday as I'm sure Senator Reid's "real purpose" was to demand that Able Danger's coverup be exposed. I can just imagine their dismay at receiving mail perceiving Reid wants to expose Jamie Goralick, the Clinton administration and the pro-lib intelligence agencies in their tactical move yesterday. Spread the word and than your Democrat today for demanding Able Danger's secrets be uncovered.

scoove

Can you imagine how sweet it would be if they refused to consider new legislation until they had time to actually read it? "There's no way I can fairly consider all this pork until I finish reading it around 2008."