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Jan

11

Too Much To Read and See — Not Enough Time

Posted By: 'Okie' | 9:43 am — 1/11/2006 | Comments Off See comments below:

Writing has been light for a few days, as I have been hammered with duties, helping the Good Wife in her office, going to the LA Car Show with my clients (we’re in the auto aftermarket business), and doing client work, that sort of stuff, which has left only a little time to read the blogs and watch a bit of the Alito hearings.

Of which, during lunch yesterday I watched the entirety of Russ Feingold’s questioning. I lost count of how many times he said something on the order of, “I know that you won’t be able to answer this question, but . . .”, but it was a lot! And, he just kept on asking, and Alito just kept on side-stepping, ’cause he couldn’t answer. Feingold was trying to pin Alito down on whether he thought that the NSA’s monitoring of communications into the U.S. was legal, or permissible under law, although he certainly didn’t word it that way, more something like, “Bush’s illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens . . .”. Obviously this will be litigated up to the Supreme Court, and Justice Alito when confirmed will have to hear this one, so he can’t provide a preliminary analysis or answer. Just more Democratic Senatorial Blowhard syndrome.

Not that it is a purely Democratic problem. I had to get back to work, so I turned on my least favorite Commi radio station out here in the last of the lost, KPFK, because they were broadcasting the hearing live and uninterrupted. Without the visual distraction of the TV image, you certainly are struck by how pompous and looooong the Senator’s questions are — and that goes for almost all of the Senators on both sides of the isle. Ankle Biting Pundits has this breakdown of yesterday’s questioning and it’s a real eye-opener.

Democrats

“Rosary Joe” Biden 78-22% (DE) (3,673 – 1,013) (a 1,879 word, and 13 minute opening “question”)

Chuck Schumer (NY) 75-25% (3,555-1,165)

Ted Kennedy (MA) 69-31% (3,439-1,539)

Pat Leahy (VT) 60-40% (2,714-1,874)

Russ Feingold (WI) 56-44% (2,976-2,364)

Diane Feinstein (CA) 42-58% (1,912-2,593)

Herb Kohl (WI) 37-63% (1,835-3,094)

Republicans

Mike DeWine (OH) 72-28% (3,398-1,323) (Corrected from 82%-18%)

Lindsey Graham (SC) 65-35% (3,032-1,643)

Jeff Sessions (AL) 61-39% (2,827-1,773)

John Cornyn (TX) 56-44% (3,407-1,900)

Jon Kyl (AZ) 53-47% (2,594-2,255)

Orrin Hatch (UT) 54-46% (2,686-2,242)

Chuck Grassley (IA) 51-49% (2,305-2,183)

Arlen Specter (PA) 50-50% (2,232-2,194)

One would have thought that these guys should have learned during the John Rober’s hearings that if you take up all of your allotted time with you doing all the talking, the nominee doesn’t have to say much, which is very good indeed for the nominee. Alito is answering a lot more questions than Roberts did, but the Senators are so in love with the sound of their own voices, they just can’t resist bloviating away their minutes. Hugh Hewitt says this on his blog about yesterday’s sessions.

After watching some late night “highlights” of the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats’ collective meltdown yesterday –thank you again, Joe Biden–
I was reminded of those massive pile-ups on California’s I-5 or the 99 when the fog descends but the drivers insist on plowing ahead into the murk.

Beginning with Pat Leahy and continuing all day and into the evening, Democrat after Democrat drove at high speed into a brilliant jurist with 15 years of appellate court experience backed up by prosecutorial chops.

Like they were ever going to lay a glove on him.

What a bunch of windbags! Gotta tune in today some, this is just too much fun!

Couple more items that you should persue. The Avian Flu is causing a great deal of concern in Turkey. Hugh warns our local governments here in the U.S. that there will be hell to pay if they don’t prepare for an outbreak over here.

Iran has broken the IAEA’s seals at a nuclear enrichment facility and will soon be resuming it’s research. Tony Blair says that the West will sanction Iran for this new hostile action.

And, Hell froze over yesterday — podcast was at eleven . . . (db)

Sphere It
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 at 9:43 am and is filed under Avian Flu, Decision '06, S.C.O.T.U.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |  Print This Post Print This Post  |  Email This Post Email This Post

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