Clean and Mean

The Philadelphia Daily News carried an editorial by Deborah Leavy (who was council to Senator Paul Simon during the Bork hearings), aptly titled Robert Bork without the beard. She notes:

Alito's bland face, thinning hair and glasses made him look like the nerd in the next cubicle in the office. He was soft-spoken, modest and calm in responding to senators. . . In Samuel Alito, they found a judicial nominee who thought a lot like Robert Bork, but without the beard, the brusqueness, the pride and the candor. We got a blank stare, a modest demeanor - and total obfuscation.

Don't be fooled. Bork and Alito may have different personalities, but they share the same legal philosophy. Both are premier architects of modern conservative jurisprudence. They are lauded by the far right, heroes of the ultraconservative Federalist Society. As Court of Appeals judges, both favored a stronger executive branch, corporations over average citizens and limited access to the courts for victims of discrimination. Neither thinks Congress should have the power to pass laws protecting the health, welfare and safety of Americans. Both believe Roe was wrongly decided and would probably vote to overturn it.

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That Democrats have been so stymied in trying to stop the Alito nomination is the bitter fruit of the last two presidential elections, and elections for senators as well. Most voters don't focus on the Supreme Court as an important issue. That's too bad, because most voters don't want to overturn Roe vs. Wade, don't want government surveillance to be unlimited, and don't want to have the Supreme Court strike down laws such as the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, civil-rights laws and laws protecting worker safety. Any and all of that could happen under the Bork/Alito approach to the law.

If, as expected, Judge Alito is confirmed, he will join a Supreme Court poised to radically transform the legal landscape in ways that would shock the Framers of the Constitution and should alarm most Americans.

Because in Sam Alito, we got Bork without the beard.

In other words, the old maxim holds true. You can't tell a book by it's cover. The covers may have gotten fancier, but the glossy look outside doesn't necessarily equate with the words inside. You have to remember: with a book, ultimately, it's the words that count.

With a Supreme Court Justice, it's the legal words or opinions that count, which are based upon a judicial philosophy. As I said before, he's not called Scalito for nothing. The name was bestowed on him long before he was nominated to the Supreme Court, in recognition of his ultra-conservative views.