WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Kennedy did his best to get exercised
about the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme
Court yesterday. So did his audience at the Center for American
Progress, John Podesta’s left-wing “think tank”/activist group in
Washington, D.C. But between the weak case against Alito and the
event’s reigning sense of resignation, Kennedy wasn’t roaring in
protest so much as he was feigning outrage.
If Judge Alito’s tour of Senate offices this week is a victory
lap, the deflated scene of Democrats announcing opposition to the
soon-to-be justice is a defeat lap. Sen. Kennedy and his crowd had
the sense of inevitable loss, lacking the spirit and defiance that
embodied Democrat filibuster rallies last spring. The home crowd
greeted and sent away Kennedy with polite applause. Kennedy omitted
customary applause pauses in his speech, perhaps expecting such low
spirits. There was no shouting, no cheering, no exuberance.
Perhaps it’s because no one cares. The American people don’t —
they think Sam Alito’s an OK guy. Tim Russert doesn’t — Alito’s
name didn’t merit a mention on Sunday’s
show after a week of the Senate Judiciary spectacle. Even
Senate Democrats don’t — only half bothered to show up for the
closed meeting on confirmation strategy.
Not that the nomination of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court ought
to ruffle any feathers. Kennedy’s speech was typical of the
liberals’ case against Alito. Their proof that Alito is positively
unfit for the bench is a series of negatives: he didn’t say enough, he wouldn’t disavow
certain views. There’s no smoking gun, no clear-cut case or
statement demonstrating outright hostility to our Constitution, the
Bill of Rights, or adherence to them.
So Kennedy relied on a plurality of suspicions: Alito believes
in the “troubling” “unitary executive,” which leads to NSA
wiretapping and detaining citizens; Alito consistently doesn’t rule
for the “little guy”; his “testimony failed to resolve the very
serious concerns that he’s itching to overturn Roe v.
Wade.”
Even these few limp charges are dishonest. Kennedy said, “But on
opinions has authored, he has issued no less than 30
decisions dismissing job discrimination claims.” Oh my, 30?
Not 29, but 30? With such emphasis before a left-wing crowd, the
number is downright damning. But Kennedy didn’t bother to mention
that Alito has participated in over 3,000 decisions.
The senior senator from Massachusetts also omitted key details
of specific cases in which Alito supposedly went after minorities.
Kennedy said, “Judge Alito even dissented from a ruling prohibiting
the removal of African-American jurors because of their race.” The
senator failed to add that Riley v. Taylor was James
Riley’s last-ditch attempt to escape his murder conviction and spot
on death row.
Beyond his selective and shady interpretations of Judge Alito’s
decisions, Kennedy provided little other ammo: an op-ed by liberal
law professor Cass Sunstein, the notorious Knight Ridder analysis,
and a Washington Post “analysis.”
And Kennedy continued his apparent amnesia regarding his own
role in the Alito hearings as well as in Judge Robert Bork’s
nomination to the Court: “Instead of a free and honest exchange of
ideas, our hearings have become stylized and choreographed
appearances in which the nominees are coached to say as little as
possible.” What a racket: the senator decries the consequences of
the very hostile environment he helped create.
If Alito’s such an awful guy, one would guess Ted Kennedy would
have called for a filibuster yesterday. Before and after the
speech, attendees expressed dismay over the Democrats’ apparent
surrender on a filibuster. Should they filibuster? one attendee
asked. “It’s the only way to save the Court,” another replied with
resignation.
But Kennedy didn’t even mention the possibility. Kennedy
spokeswoman Laura Capps told TAS after the speech that
“all options are open. [The filibuster] hasn’t been taken off the
table and it certainly is on the table.” These moments of grave
concern are merely for the record for the angry “netroots” and donors. Everyone’s outraged at
Alito’s nomination, but not willing to waste any political capital
fighting it. So just how outraged are they really?
