Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

"I feel compelled to address this issue, not to point fingers, to scold, or to assign blame, but to address specific, sincere, and heartfelt concerns that have been brought to my attention by the people of West Virginia. Many people,  including foremost the people of West Virginia in no uncertain terms were, frankly, appalled by the Alito hearings. I don't want to say it; but I must. They were appalled."

While I applaud him and respect him for listening to his constituents, I have to wonder... Why confirm a man to a life-long position on the highest court in our land... to spite the manner in which the Alito hearings were conducted. While he did mention a couple of Alito's opinions, like his opinion on Executive power, most of his explanation is filled with historical 'Framers' references. You can read Sen. Byrd's explaination here.

Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota is another Democrat who voted for Alito. His explanation can be found here. Conrad mentions his first reason for support as being opinion polls, stating that the majority of Americans and North Dakotans want to see Alito confirmed. The only poll that I have found which comes close to that is one conducted by FOX NEWS. According to PollingReport.com, the fact is that the majority of American's don't know enough about Alito, or haven't been paying attention. Conrad also bases a lot on faith that Alito is a 'Good Guy', using logic like,

"Judge Alito looked me in the eye and told me that he will not conduct himself based on an ideological agenda. He promised me that he would judge each case based on its merits and protect and defend the liberties set out in the Constitution."

"I am troubled by Judge Alito's apparent views on matters such as executive power, his past opposition to the principle of one person, one vote, and his narrow interpretation of certain civil rights laws. Even so, I cannot accept an

argument that his views are so radical that the Senate is justified in denying his confirmation."

In a time, where we have a rogue President, violating whichever laws he feels suit his needs, this guy thinks that the Senate is not JUSTIFIED is denying his confirmation. Here is a Senator, a DEMOCRATIC Senator who doesn't believe that one person, one vote is worth defending. He acknowledges that Alito has a narrow interpretation of certain civil rights laws and thinks there is no problem with that. Democrats out there, please find someone else to run against this asshole. This guy is another ZELL MILLER! You can read his statement here.

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska has one paragraph on his website regarding his support for Alito,

"I have decided to vote in favor of Judge Samuel Alito to serve as the 110th Justice of the United States Supreme Court. I came to this decision after careful consideration of his impeccable judicial credentials, the American Bar Association's strong recommendation and his pledge that he would not bring a political agenda to the Court."

That's it... That is how hard this guy researched Alito. "What does the A.B.A. think about this guy? If they like him, I'll vote for him." In fact, his statement was one of the first, including Republicans, to come out in support for Alito. He took NO TIME to research or deliberate the character of Samuel Alito. Excellent way to represent your constituents. His statement, although brief is here.

Today I have spent much time picking on the members of my own party, members of my party who have done their country and their constituents a great disservice. This is why I wanted to research their statements and make them available to read. If any of them could clearly justify a valid reason for their support, I wouldn't be so against them. As I said earlier, I applaud them for not just following the party line. However, other than that... they have no excuse. They can not reasonably and responsibly justify their support for Samuel Alito based on his record.

I wish that I had more time to delve in to the reasons that the Republican members of the Senate gave as their excuse for support. However, there are too many of them to research at this time. I will publish my findings on Republican excuses at NeoDems when I have had time to read all of the supporters' comments. Initial reports from the Republican members shows that many state their main reason as, "He was nominated by the President of the United States". Keep in mind that this is the President, who time and time again, asks us to 'trust him', only to continually betray our trust.

Undoubtedly, there will be commentors out there who will lambast me as being a sore loser.  I assure you that I am not sore... However, we are all losers with this confirmation.