It’s Good News, Bad News For Alito
The newest ABC News-WaPo Poll shows support to be, well, tepid, but still more support than opposition:
Alito begins the confirmation process with the support of 49 percent of the public, while 30 percent currently say he should not be confirmed, the poll found. One in four Americans — 24 percent — did not yet know enough about him to make a judgment.
While the report makes clear that there is still a bit of salesmanship that needs to take place, one must keep in mind is that Alito, from all indications, will have the support of those that count – the Republicans in the Senate, and the Gang of 14. Indeed, it appears there is no chance of a successful filibuster. Here’s Joe Lieberman, after the Gang of 14 met today:
…if any of us ever come to a point where we are thinking that we may in this nomination have seen something that looks like extraordinary circumstances, that we will come back to the group and reason together. That’s the spirit in which the gang of 14 came together.
But none of us reached that point. As Ben said, early in the process, a man with an enormous number of opinions that he’s written, judicial opinions that we all want to go over, and most of all, hear his testimony before the judiciary committee.
Still Chillin’? You bet I am…
I think this poll is interesting for what it says about how people come to their conclusions. Roberts had better approval numbers, yet unless my fellow citizens are much more diligent than I am and came to their conclusions after poring through Alito’s and Roberts’ judicial opinions, I’m guessing they’re coming to their conclusions strictly through what others are saying about the men, and through the lens of how they view President Bush.
Roberts is a popular Washington insider, so even establishment liberals who don’t care for his ideology couldn’t say too many bad words about him. In Alito’s case, the one thing everyone’s heard is the “Scalito” comment, with the implication he’s a doctrinaire right-winger. The thing is, there’s no particular reason to think either Roberts or Alito view the role of the Supreme Court all that differently.
Roberts benefited from being nominated before Katrina and Miers did a number on Bush in the polls. But even if Bush is less popular now, that doesn’t make Alito all that different from Roberts.