Alito: A Last-Gasp Democratic Gambit Fails

What’s in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton papers? Nothing.

Byron York writes about the Democrats desperate attempt to find some sort of incriminating evidence concerning Sam Alito's relationship with the conservative group Concerned Alumni of Princeton in the hope that they could somehow prove that he was, and is, an evil racist bigot and homophobe. As is usually the case, the facts of reality were on the side of conservatives. But the posturing of the Democrats was enjoyable to watch as the facts became known and the truth became clear. And of course it was priceless to watch Arlen Spector smack down the drunken swimmer, Ted Kennedy.

You can say what you want about the liberal groups opposing Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, but they stay on message. So much so that by late afternoon Wednesday, when Alito's confirmation hearing was nearing the end of its third day, and Alito himself had testified for nearly 15 hours, and just a few members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, not to mention the press and the public, remained in the Hart Senate Office Building hearing room, and Democratic senators were struggling and failing to find new ways to interrogate Alito on his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, and Alito was looking like an absolute lock to win confirmation, barring a suicidal Democratic filibuster…well, even then, the anti-Alito coalition was bravely claiming that everything was going just fine.

"It's been a very, very bad day for him," said Nan Aron, head of the Alliance for Justice. By "him," she meant Alito, who had suffered, Aron said, severe blows to his credibility. "The credibility gap that existed before the hearing has become a credibility chasm," said People for the American Way head Ralph Neas, talking to reporters outside the hearing room. "Judge Alito has a profound problem both on substance and credibility grounds," said Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Republicans laughed when they heard that one. "It's over," one GOP aide said flatly, referring both to the Democratic opposition and the hearing itself.