Alito

[BigV]

Originally Posted by richlevy

Wait till you start getting the right-wing e-mails. They beat the liberals to the website registration. This reminds me of a report I saw on Afghanistan last night. It turns out the US destablized Afghanistan to prevent the Russians from gaining a foothold there and dominating the region. We spent a large amount of money doing this, and set the stage for the Taliban and Bin Laden.

From declassified Russian documents, it does not appear that this was their intention. They were involved in Afghanistan because they thought that we wanted to dominate the entire region and install bases. This was never our stated intent.

If both sides are to be believed, the entire Afghanistan conflict resulted from each side getting interested because the other side appeared to be showing too much interest.

Alito really is an enigma. On the surface he does appear to take a 'by the book' constitutional approach which maybe originalism or may even be the even more narrow 'strict construcionalism'. His work as a lawyer in the Justice Department appears to point to conservative activism, but that may be misleading. As a lawyer, it was his job to do what he was asked, assuming the task was not illegal. So his theorizing about ways to introduce the conservative agenda were part of his job, and he may not be attached to them enough to be influenced as a justice.

In the end, social conservatives believe that they are owed something by the adminstration and are assuming that Alito is their payoff. There is no definitive proof of this. In the end, the conservatives and liberals are fighting over Alito because of the interest of the opposing side. If anything, Alito might be a gift to Bush's business donors.

In any case, expect the e-mails, TV ads, and web postings to heat up in the next few weeks.

I do think Alito is his own person, and not some fawning idiot, so I think that GWB will be disappointed if he looks for approval on renditions, torture, and other 'war' issues. The Bill of Rights were written after a war in which our founding fathers were the insurgents, so the 'enemy combatant' argument will have a limited amount of traction there when applied to US citizens.

What a good post, richlevy.

Your analogy is apt and insightful. Bonus points for the tie in to current events. Overall a pleasure to read. I also hope your analysis about being his own man is on target. I haven't enough evidence yet to make a decision with confidence.