[Mb-civic] Senate to Vote On Alito Today - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Senate to Vote On Alito Today
Confirmation Near as Filibuster Fails

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; A01

Republican senators, aided by 19 Democrats, cleared the path yesterday 
for Samuel A. Alito Jr. to join the Supreme Court and for President Bush 
to put his stamp firmly on the nine-member bench.

The Senate voted 72 to 25 to end debate on Alito's nomination and to 
allow a roll call on his confirmation today, shortly before noon. 
Alito's supporters garnered a dozen more votes than the 60 they needed 
to choke off a Democratic filibuster effort, which would have allowed 
debate to continue indefinitely.

Leaders of both parties said Alito, 55, will comfortably win 
confirmation today, although not by the 78 to 22 margin that Chief 
Justice John G. Roberts Jr. received last fall. Legal analysts say 
Alito's 15-year record as an appellate court judge suggests he may be 
more consistently conservative than Roberts. Moreover, they say, Alito 
is poised to make a larger impact on the court because he will replace 
Sandra Day O'Connor, the deciding vote in numerous 5 to 4 decisions over 
the years. Roberts succeeded a fellow conservative, the late William H. 
Rehnquist.

"I am pleased that a strong, bipartisan majority in the Senate 
decisively rejected attempts to obstruct and filibuster an up-or-down 
vote on Judge Sam Alito's nomination," Bush said in a statement. "Judge 
Alito is extraordinarily well-qualified to serve on our nation's highest 
court."

The attempted filibuster was more symbolic than serious from the start, 
as Alito's opponents realized they were almost certain to lose 
yesterday's "cloture" vote. But liberal groups pressed their Senate 
allies to use the nomination process to underscore concerns that Alito 
will try to restrict abortion rights, expand presidential powers, and 
limit access to courts for environmentalists and others hoping to 
overturn state policies.

Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts 
took up the liberal cause last week, forcing Majority Leader Bill Frist 
(R-Tenn.) to schedule yesterday's cloture vote so that today's 
confirmation vote could take place.

The debate was largely unremarkable until Kennedy delivered a 
thundering, ad-libbed speech in which he warned that the Alito vote "is 
going to have echoes for years and years to come."

"If you are concerned and you want a justice that is going to stand for 
the working men and women in this country, it's not going to be Judge 
Alito," Kennedy roared as tourists in the visitors' gallery leaned 
forward for a better view.

But Frist got the last word. "The sword of the filibuster has been 
sheathed," he told his colleagues moments before the roll call began. He 
scolded Democrats who pursued the stalling tactic on behalf of "the 
liberal activist agenda," and he warned that top lawyers may decline 
judicial nominations if they fear the confirmation process has become 
too brutal and partisan.

Unlike Roberts, Alito will have at least one Republican vote against 
him. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, facing a tough reelection battle in 
Democratic-leaning Rhode Island, announced he will vote against Alito's 
confirmation even though Chafee voted to end debate yesterday.

Within minutes of yesterday's vote, conservatives cheered and liberals 
lamented. "This vote is painful proof that a majority of senators will 
not stand up for women's rights, civil rights and our right to privacy 
when it counts the most," Debra L. Ness, president of the National 
Partnership for Women & Families, said in a statement.

But Jan LaRue, chief counsel of Concerned Women for America, said: "The 
idea of filibustering a fine nominee like Judge Alito is beyond 
ridiculous. It's an abuse of the advice-and-consent process and defies 
the will of the American people."

All 53 GOP senators who were in the chamber yesterday voted to cut off 
debate. Most of the 19 Democrats who joined them are from states that 
Bush carried in 2000 and 2004. The Democratic caucus's split reflects 
the belief among many members that mounting a hopeless battle against 
Alito is less productive than confronting Republicans on issues such as 
ethics and Bush's domestic surveillance practices.

Maryland's senators, Democrats Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski, 
voted to continue debate yesterday, and Virginia's senators, Republicans 
John W. Warner and George Allen, voted to end it.

The only successful filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee was in 1968, 
when unimpeded debate kept Justice Abe Fortas's bid to become chief 
justice from reaching a confirmation vote.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001021.html
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