Opening Salvo

Most Conservative Columnists haven't responded to the Alito Confirmation yet. Most of them will take the opportunity with their regularly scheduled column to do that (some may have responded to it at their blogs, but I'm not interested in searching through Republican Blogs just now).

There is one article up at Townhall, by Curt A. Levey, which focuses on how the Democratic Party has apparently misjudged the American people.

Faced with the opportunity to prove their independence from ultra-liberal interest groups, Senate Democrats struck out Tuesday when they voted almost unanimously against the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Come November, Democrats will bear the cost at the polls.

This is a nice way to spin it. Total crap, of course, but effective enough.

Alito was an extremist nominee, but our party failed to make that case effectively, getting sidetracked into dead ends like his belonging to an alumni group several decades ago. Alito believes in the power of the executive (and particularly this executive) to do whatever the hell it wants to do. Alito will support Executive Torture and Executive Wiretapping. Presumably he's also cool with Executive Outing of CIA Agents.

But we failed to make that case, and by we I mean Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary,, in particular. So Levey might be right, there might be a price to pay come November.

Of course, I don't know how that will overcome Republican Ethics Scandals, or the President's illegal wiretaps, or ongoing trouble in Iraq, all of which could move voters as well.