Top Items:
Charles Hurt / Washington Times:
Both parties prepared for 'Armageddon' fight — Senate Democrats and Republicans — along with interest groups both for and against Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination — fell into formation yesterday to begin the battle they've been expecting for more than a decade.
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Tom Curry / MSNBC:
Specter goes to bat for high court nominee — Judiciary Committee chairman sends strong signals that he'll help Alito — WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sent strong signals Monday that he would use all his clout to help federal appeals court …
Discussion:
Left in the West, The Moderate Voice, The Heretik, RedState.org, The Sideshow, Ezra Klein and TAPPED
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
Alito Leans Right Where O'Connor Swung Left — In 1991, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. voted to uphold a Pennsylvania statute that would have required at least some married women to notify their husbands before getting an abortion; a year later, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor cast a decisive fifth vote at the Supreme Court to strike it down.
New York Times:
After a Career of Quiet Focus, Alito Is Leaving the Background — WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 - One weekend in 1986, two young lawyers working for Samuel A. Alito Jr., then a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, faced a looming deadline for a legal analysis and realized they would have to work all night to get it done.
Ann Althouse / New York Times:
Separated at the Bench — NO sooner did we learn that President Bush had chosen Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court than commentators began blurting: "Scalito!" Judge Alito, a man of stellar credentials and 15 years on the federal bench …
New York Times:Another Lost Opportunity
Discussion:
Washington Post, Slate, Captain's Quarters, Benedict, QandO, ACSBlog, Bark Bark Woof Woof and Right Side Redux
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:Abortion Case May Be Central in Confirmation
Discussion:
the talking dog
David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:Conservatives Scrambling to Prepare for a Tough Fight
Discussion:
Pam's House Blend
Cass Sunstein / Washington Post:
On the Contrary — As an appeals court judge, Samuel Alito has compiled a massive record that includes more than 240 opinions. Of these, the most illuminating may well be his 41 dissents — opinions that he has written by himself, rejecting the views of his colleagues.
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Washington Post:
Trial Could Pit Libby's Interests Against Bush's — Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he lied and obstructed justice in the CIA leak probe when he is arraigned Thursday, setting the stage for a possible courtroom fight …
Discussion:
Billmon, firedoglake, AMERICAblog, Bark Bark Woof Woof, The Carpetbagger Report and The Left Coaster
Michelle Malkin:
UNHINGED: THE MUGSHOT COLLECTION — Today's the official launch date for my new book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild: — I had fun with this one (wait 'til you see the back cover) and think you'll enjoy it—or, if you're on the other side of the aisle, you'll enjoy hating it.
Daily Kos:
The Nuclear Option — After the 2004 election, Tom DeLay crowed that Republicans were at the dawn of a "permanent majority". A year later, things are not looking so hot for Republicans. — Bush has been hovering in the 38-41 range. The Republican Congress is in the 30s.
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E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
What the 'Shield' Covered Up — Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked? — In his impressive presentation of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby last week, Patrick Fitzgerald expressed the wish that witnesses had testified when subpoenas were issued in August 2004, and …
Discussion:
firedoglake, The Huffington Post, TAPPED, Middle Earth Journal, Poynter Online, Roger Ailes and Daily Kos
Kevin Aylward / Wizbang:
ALITO SMEAR DOCUMENT CAME DIRECTLY FROM DNC — If you're attempting to mount a sleazy smear campaign against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito inferring that he is in some way in bed with the mob, it's probably best not to electronically sign your name to it.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Ezra Klein, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Random Numbers, baldilocks, Everyman Chronicles, Palmetto Pundit, Blinq, JunkYardBlog and Stop The ACLU
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Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:The Alito Smear: Italian=Mafioso
Discussion:
Radio Blogger, The Next Hurrah, Billmon, Blogs for Bush, Althouse, Conservative Outpost and Myopic Zeal
Gateway Pundit:
Before Novak, The Joe Wilson Speech that Made Clear His Agenda — ** The June 2003 Joe Wilson Speech You Are Not Supposed to Hear! ONE MONTH BEFORE ROBERT NOVAK WROTE HIS COLUMN, AMBASSADOR JOSEPH WILSON LAID OUT HIS AGENDA AGAINST THE US ADMINISTRATION AND ISRAEL AT THE LEFTIST 2003 IRAQ FORUM CONFERENCE,
Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:
Labor Dept. Is Rebuked Over Pact With Wal-Mart — The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for "serious breakdowns" in procedures involving an agreement promising Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before labor investigators would inspect its stores for child labor violations.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, Confined Space, Roger Ailes, The Left Coaster and NathanNewman.org
Thomas Oliphant / Boston Globe:
The coverup worked — NO ONE really noticed, but Patrick Fitzgerald made an unassailable point last week about the timing of the indictment that his CIA leak investigation has produced so far. — ''I would have wanted nothing better," he said, ''that when the subpoenas were issued in August of 2004 …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune ~ Boo!
Knight Ridder:
Cheney's new security adviser linked to bogus information on Iraq — WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney replaced I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as his national security adviser on Monday with an aide identified by a former Iraqi exile group as the White House official to whom it fed information on Iraq that turned out to be erroneous.
Josh White / Washington Post:
Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts — Jumah Dossari had to visit the restroom, so the detainee made a quick joke with his American lawyer before military police guards escorted him to a nearby cell with a toilet. The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba …
