Alito Confirmed, 58-42

Excellent.

All but one of the Senate's majority Republicans voted for his confirmation, while all but four of the Democrats voted against Alito.

That is the smallest number of senators in the president's opposing party to support a Supreme Court justice in modern history. Chief Justice John Roberts got 22 Democratic votes last year, and Justice Clarence Thomas -- who was confirmed in 1991 on a 52-48 vote -- got 11 Democratic votes.

Thanks to Stop The ACLU.

Related: Kos Gets One Right-- He basically proclaims he's the tail that wags the dog now, and Ankle Biting Pundits thinks he's right.

Which is great for Kos. And very bad for the Democratic Party, and American politics generally.

Bonus: Lapsed Leftist was hoping Alito garner fewer than 60 vote. Why? Because it's worse for the liberals. Now they will go bananas that if the Democrats had "just showed some spine" they could have filibustered Alito.

Dems Admit Alito "A Man of Honor:" From the NYT--

Their most indefatigable strategist was James Flug, a longtime friend of Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts who, at 67, was decades older than most of the other legal counsels on the Judiciary Committee staff. Mr. Flug first worked for Mr. Kennedy 35 years ago when they led a liberal minority of senators to block the Supreme Court nominations of Judges G. Harrold Carswell and Clement F. Haynsworth Jr., in both cases by mobilizing a coalition of civil rights groups and unearthing embarrassing aspects of the nominees' records.

Among other things, several Democratic aides said, Mr. Flug drove the investigation into Judge Alito's failure to recuse himself, as he had pledged to do during his court of appeals confirmation hearing, from cases involving his mutual fund company, Vanguard. But Mr. Flug met with polite skepticism from many of his colleagues.

"You are going to ask more questions about that oversight where Alito made no money?" a staff member for another Democratic senator said he asked Mr. Flug.

"It became clear to us early on," the staff member added, "that the guy may be way too far right for our tastes, but we think the guy is a man of honor."

posted by Ace at 11:34 AM

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