UPDATE:
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) (L) shakes hands with Ranking Democratic Member Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) at the conclusion of the Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on Capitol Hill in Washington January 13, 2006. Alito on Thursday was headed for Senate confirmation despite a protracted effort by combative Democrats to show he would move the court to the right on abortion and other divisive issues. REUTERS/Jim Young
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. testifies on Capitol Hill Friday, Jan. 13, 2006, before the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Panel members prepare to testify on Capitol Hill, Friday, Jan. 13, 2006, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. From left are, New York attorney Kate Pringle; Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; San Francisco attorney Jack White; National Bar Association President Reginald Turner Jr.; and NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund President Theodore Shaw. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Panel members prepare to testify on Capitol Hill, Friday, Jan. 13, 2006, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. From left are, Tuskeegee, Ala. attorney Fred Gary; former National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) President Kate Michelman; New Haven, Conn. attorney Ronald Sullivan Jr.; American University law professor Amanda Frost; and retired Northeastern University law professor John G.S. Flynn. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Professor Nora Demleitner (from L-R), Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, Professor Anthony Kronman, former counsel to U.S. president Bill Clinton Beth Nolan, former U.S. Solicitor General Charles Freid and Professor Laurence H. Tribe appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify at the confirmation hearing of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on Capitol Hill in Washington January 13, 2006. Alito on Thursday was headed for Senate confirmation despite a protracted effort by combative Democrats to show he would move the court to the right on abortion and other divisive issues. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Reminder
U.S. Representative Wasserman Schultz Testifies at Alito Hearing
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz will testify on a witness panel at today’s Senate Judiciary Hearing for Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito.
Senate Democratic leaders tapped her to testify at the hearing to focus attention on privacy concerns.
"This is a nominee who is clearly out of the mainstream and would tilt the scales of justice far to the right. I fear that my children's generation will grow up in a very different world if this Justice is confirmed and their rights are restricted.” - Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Rep. Wasserman Schultz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is one of only two members of Congress asked to testify at the hearings.
Watch Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on C-SPAN
today between 5:00p.m. – 7:00p.m.
Click here to watch online at C-SPAN.org
Paid for by Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Congress
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Alito Appears Headed for ConfirmationBy JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press
Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court is gliding toward confirmation despite a week of hearings in which Democrats tried and failed to hobble his prospects with withering questions on abortion, presidential power and ethics.
Democrats argue that the former Reagan administration lawyer is likely to tip the court's balance to the right in replacing centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But with little success so far peeling votes from Alito's confirmation as the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice, Democrats showed not much appetite for mounting a filibuster on the Senate floor.
Instead, they are seeking to slow Alito's ascension by demanding that the committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., delay the panel's vote a week.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid "is urging all Democrats to refrain from committing to a vote either for or against confirmation prior to the caucus next Wednesday," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Thursday.
Specter, who had wanted a committee vote next Tuesday, told reporters Thursday night that the date of a vote was up in the air. "It's been very hard to get a focus on that," he said.
Democrats want to give their caucus time to study the hearing transcripts, Manley said. Also to be considered is whether any reason exists to filibuster the nomination, but the chances of a filibuster happening appeared slim.
Any delay would do little to whittle support for Alito's confirmation.
GOP senators, both on and off the committee, praised Alito, who has been a federal appeals court judge for the past 15 years, as his testimony ended Thursday.
"I enthusiastically endorse and support Judge Alito's nomination," Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said. Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., noted to the judge that his high school friends "predicted you would serve on the Supreme Court one day, and I think that's going to turn out to be a good prediction."
A Democratic senator issued positive comment as well. "So far I have seen nothing during my interview with the nominee, the background materials that have been producedor through the committee process that I would consider a disqualifying issue against Judge Alito," Sen. Ben Nelson (news, bio, voting record), D-Neb., said.
Other senior Democrats have not said how they would vote, including three Judiciary Committee members who voted for Chief Justice John Roberts last fall: ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Wisconsin Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold.
Democrats face an uphill battle in finding enough votes to filibuster Alito's nomination — the only way they can stop him. It takes 41 votes to sustain a filibuster, and there are 44 Democrats and one Democratic-leaning independent in the Senate.
Several committee Democrats made it clear they were not inclined to vote for Alito, including Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Charles Schumer of New York.
After four days of hearings, there are "even more questions about Judge Alito's commitment to the fairness and equality for all," Kennedy said.
The Democrats repeatedly attacked Alito's decisions as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and his writings while a lawyer for the Reagan administration — including a 1985 statement saying the Constitution did not protect the right to an abortion — and they highlighted his membership in an alumni organization that discouraged the admission of women and minorities at Princeton University.
"The evidence before us makes it hard for us to vote yes," said Schumer, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
After his testimony, Alito received a supportive telephone call from President Bush, who was visiting hurricane-damaged areas along the Gulf Coast. "I'm proud of the way you handled it," Bush told Alito, according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
Democrats on Thursday made no progress eliciting information more damaging or even personal than Alito's previous comments, despite peppering him on right-to-die cases, affirmative action, presidential power and ethics.
They also objected to a panel of Alito's colleagues on the Court of Appeals, saying that the judicial code of ethics advises against judges presenting character testimony. They said Alito would be faced with a conflict of interest after receiving the judges' endorsements if decisions by those judges ever end up before the Supreme Court. Leahy declined to question the panel in protest.
For their parts, the seven judges — several of whomare Democrats — told senators that Alito would make an independent and ethical Supreme Court justice.
A panel of seven appellate judges who have worked with Judge Samuel Alito testify on his behalf during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006, for the Supreme Court nominee. From right, retired U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Timothy Lewis; retired U.S. Court of Appeals judge John Gibbons; Ruggero Aldisert, senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia; Judge Maryanne Trump Barry of the U.S. Court of Appeals of Philadelphia (hidden); Anthony Scirica, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit of Philadelphia; Edward Becker, senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Assistant Professor of Law Goodwin Liu (R) and lawyer Carter Phillips listen to questions about their testimony on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on Capitol Hill in Washington January 12, 2006. Alito on Thursday seemed headed for a confirmation that may move the high court to the right after the Senate Judiciary Committee ended three days of often aggressive questioning of the 55-year-old conservative. REUTERS/Jim Young
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