Creating The Illusion---What is going on with Alito

[The Whiskey Priest]

Over the weekend and continuing today the Repubs are increasing the verbal outpouring on why Alito is a wonderful thing for the country. Since his confirmation is more or less a “slam-dunk” you have to wonder why they are expending all this energy.

One analysis is that the Repubs are trying to prepare us for the rulings in which he will be the swing vote. They want us to believe that his vote will be “just,” no matter how crushing the outcome might be. Which brings us to what we can expect? What is Alito nomination all about? I think it is about increasing the systemic problem of privilege. Privilege is the most pervasive societal problem this country faces. From the beginning of our country there have been those (Federalist) who believed that there exists a class of Americans who possessed an inherent right to rule. This class was defined in which the privileged belonged to a hierarchy starting with wealth,and followed by race, sex and religion.

The nomination of Alito will strengthen the pursuit of that political philosophy. That is why the talking heads supporting his nomination are working so hard when it seems his nomination is fait accompli. The Repubs are desperate for the country to understand that Alito will be just. If the rulings are onerous, deleterious or crushing upon the aveage citizen, well Sam is so sorry, but lordgodalmight! He was just.

[punpirate]

1. Pretty close to the mark...

... the RNC talking points repeatedly have tried to portray Alito as "moderate," simply because the RNC believes from polling that the word resonates with the public. In fact, looking broadly at Alito's judicial record, the substance of his prior statements, etc., he's an extremist--on the side of entrenched power--executive and corporate, and who believes the judiciary should aid that entrenched power by challenging individual rights excessively narrowly and by taking the opposite view when dealing with the power of executive government and corporations.

That's the last thing the RNC wants in the media. That's why they attacked--without substantive evidence and with considerable distortion, and one outright lie--a Knight-Ridder report that showed Alito to be much more conservatively extreme than was exposed in the actual hearings.

It's not an accident. You're right in that, yes, indeed.

[robbedvoter]

2. They are trying to intimidate the Democrats from fillibustering

by presenting his confirmation as a "fait accompli". The same way they made them in the past go along with two stolen elections and an illegal war.

[The Whiskey Priest]

4. From the beginning...the numbers were for nomination

A realistic appraisal of the number of votes required for closure ran against stopping his nomination.

Listening to what is being said this weekend and this morning, it is like an intense PR campaign to prove he is just in his thinking and when he votes against it will be because he was forced to do so by the law of the land, not some predisposition toward a particular political philosophy.

I think the repubs are more afraid of his coming rulings that we are...they fear he is going to be so reactionary that they don't want him hung around their necks...Sorry, he is your right-wing SOB.

[robbedvoter]

8. Shoring their own is another goal of all this. Durbin talked of 45 GOPers

in the senate who lean against confirmation.

[Wordie]

5. Oh yeah! Remember James Baker in FL?

Poppy Bush sent him down there in order to win the election for Baby Bush. He treated the idea that Gore could have won with unbelieveable contemt in all those press conferences he did. Grrr...still makes me angry. And we all now know the truth of those claims.

I agree; this is much of the same.

[unblock]

6. right -- the propaganda is at work against the democratic senators

i think we've been overthinking the propaganda efforts as being aimed at the average american.

that's not untrue, but the real targets are the democratic congresscritters (in this case, specifically senators).


i think they are particularly vulnerable to propaganda because they're in washington and rely on the media to know what's going on in america. the "out of touch" politician is not a myth, and if you poison the media, it's pretty easy.

[Wordie]

3. Maybe they have heard the growing Dem rumbling in favor of a fillibuster!

Here are just some of the groups that have opposed Alito’s nomination thus far:

ADA Watch/National Coalition for Disability Rights
AFL-CIO
Alliance for Justice
Alliance of Disability Advocates
Americans for Democratic Action
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Asian American Justice Center
Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living
Bazelon Center for Mental Health
Black Leadership Forum
Change to Win Federation
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Feminist Majority
Human Rights Campaign
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Laborers’ International Union of North America
Lambda Legal
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
MoveOn
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
NARAL Pro-Choice America
National Abortion Federation
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Women’s Organizations
National Council on Independent Living and World Association of People with Disabilities
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
National Lawyers Guild
National Organization for Women
National Women's Law Center
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
People For the American Way
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS)
The Woodhull Freedom Federation
Union for Reform Judaism
UNITE HERE
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
United Farm Workers
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
USAction
Violence Policy Center

http://www.nominationwatch.org/2005/12/momentum_agains.html

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. If the repukes are saying Alito is the greatest thing since sliced bread..

than all my hackles are raised and my radar is in the red zone.