Harriet-Hating Right Loves Sam

Andrew Sullivan fears the coming Armageddon:

"He looks like a qualified candidate to me at first blush, and readers will know that my basic instinct on judicial nominees is to give the president, of whatever party, considerable lee-way in their selections. A filibuster, right now, looks way-too-extreme to me. But - even though I guess I may get my fair share of blogads in the process - the prospect of another polarizing culture war battle does not exactly encourage, does it?

"The glee with which the partisan right and left will now posture, the money that will be spent, the energies that will be expended-- it's not a very edifying spectacle for the Supreme Court. I know it's just where we are, but could we have a little less Beltway glee about it? Conservatives who live for ideological battle, whose main disappointment with Roberts was that he didn't set the stage for a big ol' left-right fight, are not conservative in any meaningful sense. They're ideologues and fanatics. Same goes, of course, for the reflexive hostility on the left. Oh well."

Americablog questions Alito's ethics:

"Another ethically challenged Bush appointee, according to the Washington Post :

"Three years ago Alito drew conflict-of-interest accusations after he upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit against the Vanguard Group. Alito had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested with the mutual fund company at the time. He denied doing anything improper but recused himself from further involvement in the case.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars and it didn't raise ethical concerns for him. So how much did he have to have invested with Vanguard before it became a conflict-of-interest?"

The Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti tackles the nickname issue:

"Where did the nickname 'Scalito' come from? It is hard to say. I searched the Lexis-Nexis database and found the first reference to 'Scalito' in the December 7, 1992 National Law Journal. 'Judge Alito is described by lawyers as exceptionally bright,' reported Joseph A. Slobodzian, 'but much more of an ideologue than most of his colleagues. It's a trait that has led some to nickname him "Scalito" after the acerbic Supreme Court Justice.' References to Alito as 'Scalito' have always been in the passive tense: 'some say,' 'has been,' 'is referred to.' No one, until now, seems to have gone on record with the name.

"They probably shouldn't. 'Scalito' is a slogan; a joke of a name that masks more than it reveals. It folds one man's record -- Alito's-- into the liberal caricature of another -- Scalia. And it reduces Alito to his ethnicity and his conservatism."

Non-judge John Roberts misspoke at the White House, says CBS's Public Eye :

"After reading some of the posted comments in response to my apology, I remain deeply troubled and wanted to take a moment to try to clear this situation up. I can assure you that in no way did I intend to use the phrase 'sloppy seconds' in either a sexual connotation or a pejorative way. Rather, I was thinking 'second choice' - or 'second best'. If Harriet Miers was the 'best person for the job' - then - where did that leave Alito? It was a poor choice of words, for which I am deeply sorry.