Twenty Year Old Form Will Give Dems Some Anti-Alito Ammunition

Look for this document to get a lot of attention from the anti-Judge Alito forces:

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.

"I personally believe very strongly" in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application to become deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III.
The document, which is likely to inflame liberals who oppose Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, is among many that the White House will release today from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

In direct, unambiguous language, the young career lawyer who served as assistant to Solicitor General Rex E. Lee, demonstrated his conservative bona fides as he sought to become a political appointee in the Reagan administration.

"I am and always have been a conservative," he wrote in an attachment to the noncareer appointment form that he sent to the Presidential Personnel Office. "I am a lifelong registered Republican."

Alito has 15 years of court decisions that will be reviewed, but it's documents like this that get the left salivating. Having him on paper as opposing Roe might even be enough to keep Teddy *hiccup* Kennedy awake during the hearings.

Somewhat surprisingly, some Republicans are running out to promise the Dems that Alito won't over turn Roe:

A leading Republican involved in the nomination process insisted that this does not prove Judge Alito, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, will overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion a constitutional right.

"No, it proves no such thing," said the Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "In fact, if you look at some of the quotes of his former law clerks, they don't believe that he'll overturn Roe v. Wade."

Arlen Specter never should have agreed to hold off the hearings until January. Until then I expect one issue after another to come up, all of which will give the Dems more reasons to oppose Alito, and possibly even try a filibuster. Depending on how stridently they make the case that Alito would overturn Roe, the could quite possibly persuade some of the wishy-washy Republicans to support a filibuster.