Wonkette - confirmation hearings

Category: confirmation hearings

NOV

2005

Sam Alito Worries About Wedgies

Aw Don't You Just Want To Save Him From The Mean People-1 When we read that young Sam Alito had supported the notion that "no private sexual act between consenting adults should be forbidden" -- not he's not even limiting to groups of two! -- we thought we knew him. Sure he seemed sedate when Bush introduced him, but surely he must be set to trade video collections with Clarence Thomas and pick pubic hairs out of his tallboy. But it turns out this is not the case. Despite Judge Alito's pansexual enthusiasm, he is a complete dork. Which we love.

Dana Milbank's portrait of the would-be SCOTUS included stilted conversations about his professed desire to see South Dakota, descriptions of nerdy attire, and the revelation that not only does Alito don a baseball uniform to coach Little League, but he has been to "baseball fantasy camp and had a baseball card made of himself." This is not some ex-jock reliving his past, this is high school debate champion living out his dream. Sorta makes you want to fix his flood pants and straighten his glasses. We're pretty sure he's gonna get confirmed and everything, but we're worried that that hunky jock Roberts might take his lunch money.

Collegian Alito urged making sodomy legal [AP]

OCT

2005

Harriet Miers's Boning Up

Harriet Miers 2.0 appears to be getting off to a jerky start. First, she appears to have told Sen. Arlen Specter that the landmark privacy case Griswold v. Connecticut was "rightly decided," when really she meant "you have the blood of the unborn on your hands, stem-cell killer!" She also told Sen. Chuck Schumer that when it came to some of the legal issues he wanted to discuss, she needed to "'sort of bone up on this a little more." Indeed. We suspect she hasn't boned much at all. At least we believe her that, when it comes to abortion rights, "nobody knows how I would rule." That includes her. -- WONKETTE

More controversy over Miers
Miers says she made no promises on abortion [USAT]

Harriet Miers Gets Judges' Thumbs Up

Would You Trust Him With Your Wife The White House, intent on getting people talking about something besides Harriet Miers's clothes, religion, and cardiac fitness, brought up six former Texas State Supreme Court judges yesterday to chat with president and to give the press corps some insight on to the keen legal mind of Ms. Miers. And insight they gave, though as to into what area of the body is anyone's guess: "I'd trust her with my wife and with my life," said former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John Hill.

High praise indeed, though we wonder what Hill believes to be even the potential risks for his wife in Harriet's presence. Sure, we can hear it now: "Why, Mrs. Hill, you're just the greatest judge's wife ever...." -- WONKETTE

[REUTERS/Larry Downing]

Ex-Texas justices endorse Miers [Reuters]

OCT

2005

Barney Discovers the Identity of the Next SCOTUS Nominee

Now, with Senator Schumer call him to testify?

The still is actually from last Christmas's "Barney Cam" video, in which Barney is given the task of welcoming a new puppy and several members of the administration pretend to have conversations with him about it. Say this for Harriet Miers potential confirmation hearing performance: If her acting here is anything to go by, there is no way she'll get away with lying.

Barney Home Page [WhiteHouse.gov]

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OCT

2005

Harriet Miers's Extreme Makeover

We took the liberty of redesigning Harriet Miers's, uhm, "look."

In addition to the many other tweaks, we think the glasses add a "really, I'm just as smart as Roberts" touch. Now if we can just convince her to submit to the idea before Robin Givhan gets to her...

Daily Briefing: 'From Hostility to Silence to Praise'

• Bush nominates Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court; seen as "a woman who broke barriers in the male-dominated Texas legal world but brings no judicial experience or constitutional background to her new assignment." Bush: "I know her heart. I know her character." [WP, NYT, LAT, WSJ, WT]
• Miers likely to avoid partisan fight. Kristol: "It's hard to explain why Harriet Miers is the right pick unless you're trying to avoid a fight about someone who has expressed a conservative constitutional philosophy... it's demoralizing for the president to pass over a host of publicly identified conservative constitutionalists." [WP, NYT]
• DeLay is indicted for alleged money laundering; former majority leader says prosecutor "is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate." Punishment for money laundering can be life in prison. [WP, NYT, LAT, WSJ, USAT]
• Many conservatives express skepticism, disappointment about Miers; responses range "from hostility to silence to praise." [WP, LAT, NYT, WT, USAT, USAT]
• Nomination viewed as "more like a bunt than a bid for a home run," writes Ron Brownstein. Bush "has no appetite, at a time when he and his party are besieged by problems, for an all-out ideological fight," suspects Richard Stevenson. [LAT, NYT]
• Critics allege cronyism, the perception of which "is especially risky because it comes at a time when the White House has been accused of putting under-qualified political associates in top positions throughout the government." [LAT, USAT]

• Andrew Card initiated a secret vetting of Miers last summer. Former White House counsel: "The president is very, very confident in his judgments about people, and he likes to reward loyalty." [WP, USAT]
• Miers' "very little record" on abortion is a challenge to pro-choice groups. [NYT]
• Colleagues say Miers is a "loyalist renowned for her long hours but not hard-right ideology"; drives a red Mercedes. [WP, LAT, NYT, USAT]
• Harry Reid, Laura Bush provided early support of Miers' nomination; Democrats seem optimistic. [LAT, USAT]
• Miers has donated over $20,000 to GOP causes since 1991. [LAT]
• Roberts survives his first day at the Supreme Court. [NYT]
• Roy Moore, vocal advocate of the Ten Commandments monument, will run for governor of Alabama. [LAT]

SEP

2005

Smile and Say Conservative Hegemony

"Hold still, hold still... Jeez, I still can't believe I'm totally in the Senate Judiciary Hearing! This is so cool!"

[Larry Downing/Reuters]

At Final Day of Roberts Hearings, Hatch Snaps . . . and Snaps [WP]

SEP

2005

Roberts Hearings: Let them Have Paris

Vote For Dick Durbin Or Die Never let it be said that the government cares more about rich people than the rest of us:

DURBIN: I sent a letter to the attorney general yesterday, applauding the fact that the Justice Department had, in fact, successfully prosecuted in Massachusetts a person who had hacked in and stolen the telephone records of Paris Hilton, and I ask the Attorney General to please ask our Special Counsel in this case to take a look at the precedent of the Paris Hilton case and see if he can perhaps protect our records as much as we want to protect that poor young lady's telephone records.

RELATED: Paris Hilton Hacker Sentenced [PC World]

UPDATE: Text of Roberts Hearing [AP]

Situation Normal

A few days ago CNN, due to the Katrina and Roberts hearings "situations," expanded "The Situation Room" to, we dunno, 24 hours a day. Our question: When does it stop being a situation? As a correspondent pointed out, a "situation" that lasts for a long time becomes a "crisis" or a "castastrophe," or a "debacle." All of which do describe the show. Perhaps a name change is in order? "The Debacle Room"? "The Padded Mattress Room"? Make all those large plasma screens serve a double purpose.

Court TV Plans Full Coverage of Roberts Hearings [TV Week]

SEP

2005

Roberts' Softballs: Who's Pitching, Who's Catching?

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. . . but, Jesus, they could do better than this:

HATCH: Let me just ask you this general question: Will you give us assurance that you will keep an open mind as the administration and Congress adopt and implement new policies and legal procedures that govern the apprehension, interrogation and detention of suspected terrorists?
ROBERTS: Yes, Senator, I will. [AP]

COBURN: If you were to critique things that we could do better to make your job easier and clearer, what would you have to say to that? [AP]

SESSIONS: Isn't that the essence of what justice is, this careful process that leads us to as fair result as humanly possible?
ROBERTS: I think that's perfectly accurate. [AP]

GRAHAM: Were you proud to work for Ronald Reagan?
ROBERTS: Very much, Senator, yes. [AP]

The Softest Balls, Lindsey Graham Edition

Regarding the behavior of certain senators at the John Roberts confirmation hearings: There are softball questions (we'll get to Sessions in a minute) and then there is Lindsey Graham acting out his mancrush on national television.

GRAHAM:I imagine the reason that you argued different positions is because people paid you. Is that correct?

GRAHAM: I imagine it must be very hard to figure out what Congress intends. Do you agree with that?

GRAHAM: But, you know, it's a free country and that's just the way it is. Right?

GRAHAM: Justice Rehnquist was your mentor, is that correct?

GRAHAM: What's it like to go through the nominating process in 2005 from a personal point of view?

GRAHAM: But, you know, it's a free country and that's just the way it is. Right?

GRAHAM: What would you like history to say about you when it's all said and done?

Given time, he would have continued: "Did anyone ever tell you your eyes are the most amazing shade of blue?" These questions aren't hard, but we wonder about Lindsey. . .

Second Day of Hearings on the Nomination of Judge Roberts [NYT]

Roberts Hearings: His Mouth Was Moving But I Barely Heard a Word

The two headlines that say all you need to know about how much senators learned at the John Roberts confirmation hearings:

Roberts Vows to Judge Cases by Rule of Law [AP]
Roberts Reveals His Favorite Movies [AP]

SEP

2005

What Kind of Balls Does Roberts Have?

The dominant metaphor at the Roberts hearings is baseball, but to judge by the questions being asked by most Republicans, the ball involved here is very, very soft. We're not sure, in fact, that this particularly featherweight item, once tossed,... [more]

Roberts Hearings: Yowza!

We know, we know, we have absolute faith that some aspect of the John Roberts confirmation hearings is exciting. That aspect is probably happening underneath the desk. (Has everyone been keeping their eyes on where Biden's hands are? He really... [more]

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