Democrats go through the motions

One thing is striking about the first day of questioning, so far, in the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

The Democrats apparently have decided not to lay a glove on him.

Missing from today's hearing: follow-up questions, challenges, any interest at all in pinning the nominee down past the sweeping generalizations he has so far offered.

If you've missed the hearings to this point, catch up: precedent deserves respect, except when it doesn't; no one is above the law, except when the president operates in his "twilight zone" of extra powers; Congress has the power to legislate under the Commerce Clause, except when the Supreme Court thinks it's gone too far; and in the past when Judge Alito said he disagreed with the Warren Court's decisions and Roe v. Wade, he was just under the influence of other people and it has nothing to do with what he will do as a justice.

(By the way, one of the people whose influence he was under, Professor Alexander Bickel, is liberally cited in the appendix to "The 37th Amendment," the essay titled "How the First Amendment Came to Protect Topless Dancing." If you're interested in the viewpoints that Judge Alito says influenced him to go into constitutional law, save yourself a lot of time and effort. Click here or here and take advantage of the six years of research that went into this ninety-or-so-page history. Footnotes and bibliography included.)

The interesting thing about the Democrats' passive pleasantries is the totally coincidental relationship to the latest opinion polls showing an increasing number of Americans willing to put the Democrats in charge of Congress again.

Then again, there are no coincidences.

Maybe the Democrats have decided to let the Republicans have their all-Scalia Supreme Court. It's really win-win for them. They look polite and responsible and unthreatening. And if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the Democrats can enjoy a cruise to victory in every contested House and Senate race.

Silence is the most volcanic thing in politics. If Roe is overturned, the pro-life politicians may find themselves swamped by a tide of previously uninvolved voters, exactly like the members of the Dover, Pennsylvania, school board, who put Intelligent Design into the science curriculum and are still sore where the door hit them.


Copyright 2006

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