The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

Sen. Jeff Sessions really had Judge Sotomayor "rocked back on her heels," according to a Fox News analyst (I think it was Chris Wallace). His performance was magnificent. But while she has been VERY unimpressive throughout, the other GOP senators have utterly failed to make their points or issue their questions in concise, memorable, understandable ways. I missed Orrin Hatch, but heard that his performance was only so-so. Sen. Grassley, bless his heart, did not adequately explain her awful property rights decision in Didden v. Port Chester and let her get away with the dodge that it was just a statute of limitations claim. Sen. Kyl started okay but then took WAY WAY WAY too long to get to his point, and lost his advantage. Lindsey Graham sort of rambled, perhaps setting himself up like a good lawyer for a later strong case, but so far he hasn't closed the deal on any of the issues he raised.

And nobody has yet brought up (unless I missed it) the sleeper case of all sleepers, the one where she ruled that currently incarcerated murderers and rapists might have a constitutional right to vote.

In short, I think only Sessions has fully done his homework. Kyl might have, too, but he didn't practice enough at getting his questions and statements concise. And Graham -- well, you never know what he's gonna do. He's plenty smart, but he's so darn squirrelly.

All in all, a disappointment, even though I think she has not helped her own case one bit today, and probably has hurt it, mostly based on Sessions' bravura performance.