Senate confirmation hearings on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court begin today. Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement three days before the Fourth of July. President Bush nominated Samuel Alito to replace her on Halloween. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day passed before Alito could get his hearing. Did this delay hurt or help Alito? Conventional wisdom holds that waiting several months before beginning the hearings killed Alito's momentum. But might conventional wisdom be wrong in that Americans have grown so used to the idea of Sam Alito on the Supreme Court that Borking him has become a more difficult prospect?

I watched the Robert's hearings and am desperately attempting to watch the Alito hearing but it is so boring! Judging by his cold stares, I don’t think Alito will be as charming as Roberts and therefor he'll have a tougher time getting put through.
p.s.Ted Kennedy is ridiculous.

That may be, Dan. On the other hand, the long wait has enabled the Democrats to get their strategy together and formulate their battle plan. In the end, I'm not sure the lengthy wait will make any difference. As for the public, first of all, they are not involved in the process and mere spectators to it, so what difference does the delay make, as far as the public's concerned? If anything, the public has probably become bored and even anesthetized by the long wait and most people, if they were paying any attention to begin with, have probably tuned the whole thing out by now. In the end, the opera's not over until the fat lady sings and, right now, she's still back stage warming up her vocal chords.

Unless a Supreme Court nominee states in the Senate hearings "I find nowhere in the constitution a right to an abortion", just like liberal intellectual titans Lawrence Tribe and Alan Dershowitz have stated, I will be disappointed and will never support Alito unless he overrules the precedent set be Roe. Intellectually honest liberals who support the policy of abortion-on-demand even agree that the abortion "right" is nowhere to be found in the document. Alito is either pro-choice or a coward. My bet is that he will not overrule the precedent established by Roe. The same bet stands for Roberts.