The elephant and the donkey seem to be quarreling because of President George W. Bush’s nomination of Federal Appeals Court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. for Supreme Court Justice.
The elephant is winning.


Bush nominated Alito on October 31 to be the new Supreme Court justice after accepting the withdrawal of his first nominee, Harriet Miers. He did so upon learning that senators would not be content with the nomination until they received documents providing evidence regarding Miers’ tenure at the White House. One would think that the President would at least know how the process of nominating a new Supreme Court justice works.
Unpredictably, the Republicans are satisfied with this nomination. The Democrats are not.
Surprise, surprise — the Bush administration did not consult any Democratic leaders before nominating Alito.
According to Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nevada), Democrats feel that “the President has chosen confrontation over consensus.”
In other words, the President does not seem to be worried about altercations that may arise. And why would he — he is not concerned about the people dying in Iraq, why would he be concerned about a nomination?
Adding Alito to the Supreme Court will further divide the nation. If Alito is appointed Supreme Court justice, the Democrats will more or less have no representation on the court.
Yet, Republicans fear that a Democratic filibuster (an obstructive tactic in a legislative body) will be difficult to overcome.
According to an article at cnn.com, “in order to successfully sustain a filibuster, Democrats would at minimum need 41 senators to agree to block Alito’s nomination from coming up a vote.” However, Republicans have the opportunity to change the senate rules to require a minimum of 51 votes for confirming a judicial nominee.
Regardless, the Democrats are the minority in this situation. Republicans have the upper hand, which is no surprise considering that the President himself is also a Republican.
Even so, the issue should not be which political party will “win” this battle; it should be whether or not the nominee is qualified or not — and Alito is qualified. Thus, even though there is much debate regarding Bush’s rash decisions, nominating Alito may be one of his smarter choices.
After all, Alito received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and attended Yale University (yet another commonality he shares with the President), where he served as an editor on the Yale Law Journal. Among other things, Alito has also argued 12 Supreme Court cases and argued at least 24 court of appeals.
Moreover, he “has a record of professional achievement and excellence … [since he has] handled difficult and complex legal issues at the highest levels of the legal profession,” according to whitehouse.gov.
Not only that, Alito has also had 15 years of experience serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Thus, Alito is more than qualified to earn a seat on the bench.
It is obvious that someone who is nominated to work with a majority group of Republicans will be Republican. However, Democrats will find this hard to adjust to considering soon to be former justice Sandra Day O’Connor “often voted with the more liberal members of the court,” according to cnn.com.

by editor: Roaya Namdari