EckerNet.Com

Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court today. That’s for those of you who have a morbid fear of little kids dressed up as Britney Spears and Brad Pitt and have hidden in the closet all day. Because that’s the only people I could fathom that would not have heard of the SCOTUS nomination for today.

And I think I’ll go on record as saying it’s a home run. He promised us a candidate like Thomas or Scalia and well he delivered. In fact you probably couldn’t get closer to Scalia without cloning him. Which as we know the president is firmly against cloning….until Karl Rove tells him otherwise…or something.

Alot of people are hypothesizing about the possibility that there will be a big fight in the Senate over Alito. I’m just not seeing it. I hope for it, but I doubt it’s gonna happen.

Despite evidence to the contrary (and at least some of my readers well voiced opinions) the Democrats aren’t stupid. They aren’t going to jump into a fight they know they can’t win. Or at least they won’t jump in wholeheartedly.

Sure the Ted Kennedys of the world will always bitch and moan about the Apocalypse coming if RobertsAlito is confirmed. Yeah yeah yeah, the sky is falling. Whatever.

But after the shitstorm (that’s the technically term for it) that conservatives threw over Miers you think ANY Republican has the balls (or lack of brains) to try to vote against Alito?? Conservatives raised holy hell over not getting a quality pick. Now they were given one that was above and beyond what they were hoping for. You seriously think any Republican wants to poke that hornets nest?? No.

Filibuster? Hell, you already got at least one member of the Gang of 14 on record saying a filibuster will lose. Nuclear option, no problem. McCain wouldn’t dare go against it, if he values another run at the Presidency. DeWine has a tough election coming up. Chafee won’t make it past the primaries if he tries to defy the party again. Graham still has bruises from the beating he got over his Gang of 14 decision, he’s not up for a repeat.

Which puts us at 52 votes for the nuclear option. Like I said, the Democrats aren’t stupid. They see the writing on the wall as well as we do. Why throw all your resources into a battle you’re destined to lose?? Especially with rumors of a potential Stevens retirement. Why not just keep the powder dry to defend a REAL liberal seat?

Yeah, Alito has a track record of conservatism, but he’s also got the intellect to defend/support it even in the face of
heavy criticism. And criticism?? He’s used to that.

Sorry, I just don’t see a huge fight happening. My prediction, the Democrats and liberals will bitch for a few months, then 60+ Senators will vote to confirm him.

The End.

When following directions on how to do something, when you reach that something….stop following the directions.

For example :

You are upgrading your system. You are following the directions. When your system is upgraded and is fully functional, stop reading the directions. Do no continue. Pay no attention to the vague comment about using the “Refresh Templates” utility. It is evil.

Thus endith the lesson.

I’m in the middle of an upgrade.

Chances are if you come back in 20 minutes this will be gone. If not, well….it didn’t go so well and I’m stuck.

Have pity on me.

UPDATE : Holy crap it worked….and now everything is all weird and different. Um, from now on posts will be more half-assed than usual as I will be extremely distracted with all the new buttons I can play with.

…for my dear friend BT. I attended his funeral this weekend. It was very sad. Especially listening to the priest standing at the front of the church listing his virtues. You could almost hear BTs laugh through out it all. As good as it was to honor BTs memory, what I really needed was a nice stiff drink. Something to drown myself in.

His death has been a long time in coming. He’s been fighting it hard for at least 5 years now. But as hard as he fought, it was a losing battle. He knew it, as did the rest of us. But it’s not his way to give in. When it finally came, it was almost welcome in a strange way. Luckily, a bunch of us were able to spend a great weekend with him about a month ago. Remembering the good times and making more great memories. We’ll miss him.

So let’s have a moment of silence for BT

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…

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He’ll return from his honeymoon on Friday, with his new wife Ari.

Congrats BT and Ari!

Well I had planned on going through all the prominent candidates and doing a quick write up on each of them.

But since it seems the White House is almost intentionally leaking who their top candidates are. Sources keep indicating either Luttig or Alito. Few other names have cropped up occasionally but those two keep getting repeated and being attributed to sources in the White House. But who knows…perhaps a cloth thrown over our eyes.

And it appears the pick is to come Monday. Which makes sense. Even before Miers resigned, rumors were that if they withdrew Miers they wanted to have another pick ready to go. Not surprising they are ready to announce another pick this soon.

So since we basically already have a good idea who it’s gonna be (or at least the cloth they are cut from) and it’s happening tomorrow, I’m not gonna skip the big write up. I mean seriously, if I put that much work into it I at least want to be able to milk it and hypothesize for a week with it.

So yeah, I’m lazy, wait for the President’s press conference.

If you want suspense, there may or may not be another dancing child at the next press conference.

This is why I’m not allowed to carve pumpkins anymore…

I blame too much Calvin&Hobbes as a kid.

Two excellent sources are reporting that either Luttig or Alito are going to be the next SCOTUS nominee. Both of which would be an excellent choice.

Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Luttig/Alito….that’s a base you can build around.

And most importantly, both would go a long way to healing the rift that has marked the last few weeks. In a way, conservatives could look at the pick as a sign that Bush meant well with his pick of Miers and is sincere about move the court in the direction he promised.

And I don’t think one has to worry about lack of support from conservatives. The “anti-Miers” crowd wanted a pick like this in the first place. Give them one and release the ravenous hounds that they are to defend that pick. The pro-Miers crowd defended her not because of her qualifications (there were none) but because of loyalty to the President. They’ll do so again

Either one of these is what conservatives, of all stripes, have been dreaming for. And if it leads to a knock-down drag out fight, well….conservatives have been itching for that as well. And I think Republicans have taken note of what happens if you piss off the base too much. Even McCain would have to fall in line if he places any value on a possible 2008 run for President.

Miers was a wake-up call for all Republicans politicians. No longer can conservatives be taken for granted because they have “no place else to go”. Conservatives have shown they do have someplace to go. And they’ll raise holy hell in the process. If you prize your political seat, beware. Do not bite the hand that feeds you. A little nip will be tolerated occasionally, we’re a patient and rational people. But you do it too much or bite us on an important issue, and you WILL suffer the consequences.

Contrary to claims that Bush is giving in to to extremist right-wingers, he gave into the mainstream of his party. Liberals defines anyone to the right of Ted Kennedy a right-wing extremist. So I wouldn’t pay much attention to those claims.

In the end, it appears you have a President willing to hand down a pick that will please quite a few people. He’ll have a conservative base united behind him, that has just recently realized how much power it wields. Republican politicians have seen a first-hand demonstration of that power and what it means to cross it.

Meanwhile Democrats, are in the minority and can see this all just as well as I can. I honestly wouldn’t be overly surprised if they made a show of putting up a protest, but realistically kept their powder dry for a fight they have a chance of winning. Especially with rumors of potentially another SCOTUS pick in the future.

Well, I. Lewis “Scooter’ Libby Jr. was indicted today.

Assuming he’s found guilty he deserves to go to jail. Although I would guess he’ll probably plea bargain it down instead of going to trial.

What makes it worse is it was a stupid mistake. By all reliable accounts, he did nothing wrong and would have been just fine if he had simply told the truth in the first place. Yet another case of the cover-up being worse than the crime.

UPDATE : Thank you DrJonz for pointing out a stupid error on my part. It has been corrected.

Wow, great Wild game. Tie game goes to overtime. Overtime goes to a shootout. Shootout goes to a Sudden Death shootout. Sudden Death Shootout goes another 6 rounds or so before it’s settled.

Unfortunately it was settled in the Blue Jacket’s favor. MN Wild lose a tough one in overtime.

On the plus side, my beloved Huskies managed to kick the crap out of the Gophers. YEAH! Which is especially nice because I’ve been taking crap at work from all the Gophers fans. I even put money on this weekends game, looks like I might win.

Yeah for money!