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New Justice's First Challenge: Clap On or Clap Off?
"A real problem in the confirmation process" was how Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.) saw it.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) capped it off by taunting the losing side: "If you want to keep fighting on this issue, we welcome that fight."
 Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. greets members of Congress as he enters the House floor for the State of the Union address. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post) Washington SketchA national political reporter for the Post, Milbank writes Washington Sketch, an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress and elsewhere in the capital. He covered the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and President Bush's first term. Before coming to the Post as a Style political writer in 2000, he covered the Clinton White House for the New Republic and Congress for the Wall Street Journal. |
Sign Up for RSS FeedOne shudders to think how the lawmakers would have reacted if they'd lost the Alito vote.
On the Senate floor, Democrats spoke more in sadness than in anger, realizing Alito's confirmation had been a certainty since a filibuster by the nominee's opponents collapsed on Monday. A wistful Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), alone on the floor, said of Bush: "I so wish he had been a uniter, not a divider."
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) brought out a well-known Zen Buddhist riddle for the occasion. "Tonight," he said, "when the president announces to applause the fact of Judge Alito's confirmation, what he should really hear, because of the partisan nature of his choice, is the sound of one hand clapping."
For the vote itself, the tradition-conscious senators sat ramrod-straight at their desks like so many good pupils. They rose when their names were called and replied in 58 cases with an "aye" and 42 cases with a "no." Some, such as Reid, uttered a soft "no" of resignation." Others, such as Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), bellowed "No!" as if punched in the gut.
Both sides were still sour when they filed into the House chamber last night. As they waited, few lawmakers dared cross the divide to chat with the other side. The center aisle became more of a chasm once Bush spoke.
The president's boast that "we are winning" in Iraq and his appeal for the extension of the Patriot Act brought the Republican side to its feet. His pitch for warrantless eavesdropping brought some heckling from the Democratic side, and the opposition lawmakers surprised Bush by leaping to applaud when he protested that "Congress did not act on my proposal to save Social Security."
The justices sat stoically as the lawmakers battled over applause lines. But when Bush introduced the family of a soldier slain in Iraq and hailed "the sacrifices of America's military families," the justices did not need to consult. They rose and joined everybody else in the chamber in emotional applause.
