ouch! Had a couple of Democratic law clerks saying Alito is cool

[BigBearJohn]

Just watched comments given by former law clerks
of Sam Alito who are supposedly liberal democrats
saying Alito should be confirmed and that he is
not an idealogue. How do I deal with this? They
"seemed" like they were telling the truth.

[bettyellen]

1. no, they want jobs. that is all- they learned this brown nosing shit from

Alito. same old same old. feel better now?

[lonestarnot]

2. I have seen some speak about him also. Just deal with the facts as we

know them. In his over 400 rulings he proceedurally stuck with corporate rulings in the interest of big business and against the weak, women and the poor. He's not big on favorable rulings in discrimination cases either. I think there may be a couple of favorable outcomes for plaintiffs in discrimination cases, but I know it's rare.

[boobooday]

3. And Alito said that Bork was the greatest nominee of the century

Remember him trying to back away from that one?

That's where these law clerks will be 20 years from now.

[Horse with no Name]

4. "supposedly liberal democrats"

ehh...me thinks not so much.
Those Republicans are pretty sneaky calling into CSPAN under Democratic phone lines, calling into Rush telling him they are liberal but...
and of course their biggest coup is infiltrating the Democratic Party under the name of DLC.

[Wordie]

5. Here is the strategy... (warning! cynical)

Say you are an ambitious law clerk, who works for a Judge who is being considered for a SC Justice. All the news reports say he is a shoo-in. What do you do? What thoughts go through your mind at that point?

Answer: Gee, Alito is going to get in no matter what. If I step forth and support him, what effect would that have on my future career...

(you fill in the rest)

I don't know those clerks, so I can't know what their motivation might be. I did notice that they all looked quite young. So my question would be, should we really take the evaluation of a relatively unseasoned person over all the other legal scholars who have raised an alarm about Judge Alito.

Two other things:
1. It is unlikely that Judge Alito, while these clerks were working for him, was ever called upon to render a judgement regarding presidential power. I'm not certain, but I believe only the SC would rule on such things. So the opinion of a law clerk about Judge Alito's beliefs about presidential power is a ludicrous and meaningless thing, imho.

2. Nobody said that Judge Alito was not a nice guy, and apparently he is more than just nice. He must be extremely personable to warrant such nice things being said about him. Being a nice guy (and the opinions of clerks) are not a thing to base a decision to seat a Justice of the Supreme Court.

[mom cat]

6. Ignore PsyOps.

[BigBearJohn]

8. Great advice. Thanks. I feel better now.

[BushOut06]

7. Alito was a good prosecutor, but I wouldn't want him as a judge

I remember reading about him when I was reading some book about organized crime in New York in the mid-90s. He was pretty aggressive in going after the Mob back then. I'm sure that's where many of his kudos come from.

That being said, being a prosecutor is a helluva lot different than being a judge.

[WinkyDink]

9. "Cool"? Compared to WHOM? Santorum?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Were they named Nelson?