Building The Case Against Alito

From today’s New York Times article From the Left, Calls to Press Alito Harder:

Opponents of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s nomination to the Supreme Court expressed growing frustration Wednesday at the course of his confirmation hearings, saying that Democratic senators were struggling in their effort to build a strong case against him and that his confirmation appeared increasingly inevitable.

Could this be because there’s no case to be made against Alito? Anyway, it’s hard to believe people on the left could have watched the hearings from the past two days and believe Democrats could have pressed Alito harder.

Ms. Gandy [president of the National Organization for Women] said Republicans had, to some extent, hamstrung Democrats by creating a public expectation that they would antagonize Judge Alito. "So I think the Democrats are leaning over backwards to be extremely, very, very nice," she said.

We would suggest Republicans did not have to create an expectation Democrats would antagonize Alito. Anyone that has watched previous Supreme Court confirmation hearings or has read the transcripts involving judges nominated by a Republican President is well aware Democrats have ranged from aggressive to hostile in their questioning of nominees. And it’s hard to believe Democrat Senators could have been any more aggressive or down right vicious to Alito.

Oh, and those Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP0) papers Senator Kennedy made such a big deal over yesterday, not a peep out of him today about what staffers found. Perhaps because:

Committee Staff reviewed more than four boxes of documents from the personal files of William Rusher concerning CAP:

Judge Alito’s name NEVER appears in any document of any kind anywhere:
* His name was not mentioned in any of the letters to or from founder William Rusher.
* His name was not mentioned in any of the letters to or from CAP’s long-time Executive Director T. Harding Jones.
* His name does not appear anywhere in the dozens of letters to CAP or from CAP.
* The files contain canceled checks for subscriptions to CAP’s magazine, Prospect, but none from Judge Alito.
* The files contain dozens of articles, including investigative exposés written at the height of the organization’s prominence, but Sam Alito’s name is nowhere to be found in any of them.
* Rusher’s files contain lists of the board of directors, the advisory board, and contributors to both CAP and Prospect magazine, but none of the lists contains Alito’s name.
* Tellingly, the files contain minutes and attendance records from CAP meetings in 1983 and 1984—just before Alito listed the organization on his job application, but Alito did not attend those meetings and he was not even mentioned in the minutes.
* The files contain dozens of issues of CAP’s magazine, but none of the articles was written by, quoted, or even mentioned Sam Alito.