ALITO: NINE HOURS INTO THE WAR

One thing is now clear: The nomination of Alito drives the left to the edge. And to odd-ball analogies (i.e. Senator Schumer's non sequitur between Rosa Parks and a future Justice Alito).

Another thing is obvious: With 16,000+ blogs on Alito already--and virtually every special interest group on the left blasting out attack press releases, a whole lot of folks are jabbering and few are listening. Of course some "mainstream" established blogs and discussion boards claim "record" traffic. Still, a lot more heat than light's being spread.

Predictably, some radical bloggers (and a few leftist politicians) are ripping Alito on the most insubstantial, hasty and emotional of bases-- He's a "fascist". . . he's a homophobe . . . he's a racist . . . he wants to strip-search little kids . . . he's got to be a mobster . . . he thinks women are "property" because of his dissent in Casey . . . he's further right than any justice ever . . . he was vetted by corporate America . . . he's just "red meat" for the base . . . he's calculated to take everybody's attention off of "Bush lied, kids died", Rove and Scooter, and Katrina . . . the Catholics are taking over the Court . . . he's another "clubby" white man and not a (a) woman, (b) hispanic, (c) secularist, (d) [fill in your favorite special interest here] . . . he will divide America . . . HE'S JUST ANOTHER JUDGE ON THE COURT! . . . his confirmation will be the end of the GOP . . . his nomination makes us miss Miers . . . his confirmation will cause the left to totally melt down if it's not stopped . . . If he's confirmed, various bloggers will become the "Harriet Tubbman" "Rosa Parks" or "Martin Luther King, Jr." of the pro-abortion movement . . . If he's confirmed Blue State America will split from the "backward" Red States . . . .

And some are even suggesting that the "Scalito" sobriquet is "racist" or otherwise a smear! If only Alito can live up to such an honorable nickname!

Lost in the outflow of "instant" reaction is that Judge Alito is apparently a well-respected Judge. He's supposedly nicer and more likeable than Scalia. He is a "process-oriented" conservative on a somewhat liberal court. He isn't afraid to dissent or to stand alone on principle. He writes well (no more tedious grammar lectures from the likes of Robert Bork on the horizon). He was a skilled litigator and debater. He has a long record of government service. He has written a large volume of opinions (especially for someone who is only about 55 years old) on subjects of controvery.

And he is now a polarizing force on the political scene. Thus, his writings will be mined for out-of-context quotes and all sorts of "prooftexting" of arguments for and against him over the next two or three months (no doubt, the Democrats and moderate Republcans will try to delay the hearings because of the shear volume of opinions--notwithstanding that no delay was necessary for prior nominees from Circuit benches.) Alito's opponents will paint broad strokes and try to confuse "the people." Alito's defenders will paint in only slightly less broad overgeneralizations, neglecting the sausage-making aspect of judicial work-- to avoid further confusing non-lawyers among us.

A majority of ordinary Americans will make up their minds on Alito by placing blind faith in opinion leaders they already trust, but probably won't have much command of the salient issues.

History will no doubt record this confirmation as one of the most politically-charged events in recent times. However, in the great scheme of things, it probably won't be the watershed moment everyone seems to think it is today.

One wonders whether Judge Alito ever expected to be at the center of such a firestorm.

Now I guess there are 16,001 unread blogs on Alito.