Grow a Pair

Steve Clemons of The Washington Note is an interesting case study of a man. He's worked closely with Democrats and Republicans. In his job with the New America Foundation, his credentials now burnish him clearly as one of those "centrists" we keep hearing so much about. Yet, amazingly, his centrism hasn't led him to believe that being a neutered or spayed puppy is the most effective way to advance his ideals.

Partly, I think this sense of how to win comes from his history with Republican operatives. But consider what he has to write today on Samuel Alito: "Sam Alito needs to be stopped. [...] TWN wishes that Senator Joseph Biden had kept his powder dry. There are things worth fighting for -- and leading Democratic Party pundits need to mature beyond their adolescent need to predict defeat even before the battle has begun."

Ouch. But it's true (although it is weird that Clemons, like Marshall Wittman, another Republican-turned-Democrat, feels the need to write about himself in the third person). And it's why Joe Biden simply can't (and likely won't) be the Democratic nominee in 2008.

Put bluntly, anyone who wants to lead this party needs to grow a pair. And Samuel Alito's nomination is a perfect time to demonstrate the presence of said pair.

Here are the facts:

- Samuel Alito voted that it was Congressional overreach to regulate the possession of machine guns. Defenders say he was simply expanding on the Lopez precedent. The Lopez precedent is so much more limited that there was a solid argument that it had little to nothing to do with the commerce clause. In other words, Alito took a narrow (but powerful) ruling and used it to turn back Congressional power in a huge way.
- Alito, in applying for a job in the Reagan Administration, expressed his opinion that there is no legal right to an abortion and that the Warren Court ruled inappropriately regarding redistricting (that speaks to "one person, one vote" rules). Now, these have been characterized as personal opinions, but they're clearly legal opinions. Alito now says we should just ignore what he said because he was applying for a job. Thankfully, Ted Kennedy has noted that this might be a good reason to doubt everything Alito says now.
- We also know that in applying for another job, namely to be a Federal Judge, Alito told the Judiciary Committee that he would recuse himself from cases involving Vanguard or his sister's law firm. He later failed to recuse himself from cases involing Vanguard and his sister's law firm. This guy seems to have a track record of "just saying things to get jobs."
- Finally, Business Week says business should be ecstatic over Alito, "In the 800-plus opinions he has penned during his 15 years as a federal judge, Alito consistently has come down on the side of limiting corporate liability, limiting employee rights, and limiting federal regulation. 'He would be a liability restrainer,' says Stan Anderson, legal-affairs lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

As Business Week further notes, "In truth, Alito probably hews closer to the philosophy of Justice Clarence Thomas than that of Scalia. He appears to give less
deference to precedent than Scalia might, and more often takes critical aim at Congress for what he considers to be overreaching."

In other words, this nomination is trouble, but Biden had to go shooting his mouth off about how we'll probably just let him on the court. This one is the whole she-bang. We've got clear evidence of hostility to workers rights, civil rights, and privacy rights, not in political terms, but in legal terms. We've got clear evidence of ethical issues. And we've got the nominee saying he'll essentially lie to get a job he wants.

If we can't sink this nomination, it's high time to walk away from the game.

Memo to D.C. Democrats: Listed to Steve Clemons and Grow a Pair.

--Matt Singer

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