Thanks, Rick

Snarlin' Arlen Specter, whom Sen. Samuel Mudd bailed out of political extinction, announced today that the Judiciary Committee's hearings on Judge Samuel Alito will not be held until January. History has taught that time is the enemy of Supreme Court nominations. The left now has the opportunity to exploit its monetary advantage by spending the next three months throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Alito. We know their tactics. We know their lack of any sense of fair play.

This is just the latest incident in a pattern of behavior by the disloyal Chairman. Shortly following last year's elections, the Chairman said that Supreme Court nominees who did not say that they would uphold Roe would be unlikely to be confirmed. He subsequently minced his words, but the threat remained. Then he refused to state a position on the constitutional option, leaving the Republicans with 49 votes to end the Democrats' unconstitutional filibusters and giving the seven dwarves an excuse to cut an unprincipled deal. At the beginning of the Roberts hearings, Specter spent 28:30 of his half hour talking about the "super de duper" precedent of Roe, sounding much like a Democrat imposing the type of litmus test that Republicans have decried for years. Now, he is giving the Democrats an opportunity to beat up on the nominee with unfair attacks.

The claim that this process could not have run its course by Christmas is ludicrous. Samuel Alito has been thought to be on the "short list" since President Bush was elected. He has a clear paper trail that has been analyzed ad nauseam by attorneys on both sides of the aisle. The judges who have worked with him are speaking publicly. His resume is beyond reproach.

Conservatives still have reason to be wary about Judge Alito, primarily because it is not yet known how he will treat bad precedent once on the Court. Hopefully, the hearings will shed some light on his approach to this important matter. Even so, there is no reason to delay the hearings other than to give the left more time to attack Alito's jurisprudence, attack his record, and make thinly veiled innuendo about his Catholic faith. As such, delaying the hearings will serve only to further erode the comity that Specter claimed to want to protect when he opted not to state a position on the constitutional option.

Arlen Specter is primarily responsible for this delay. Senator Mudd is primarily responsible for Arlen Specter. We deserve better from supposed conservatives.