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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (9605)	1/24/2006 2:23:35 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541671

Most Americans back Alito for Supreme Court: poll By Thomas Ferraro Mon Jan 23, 5:46 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Public support for Senate confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito grew slightly to 54 percent after his often stormy Senate hearing, a poll released on Monday showed. The CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey also found that only about one in three Americans believe President George W. Bush's conservative candidate would vote, as critics fear, to reverse the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which held Alito's confirmation hearing this month, was to vote on Tuesday on whether to recommend that he be confirmed by the full Republican-led, 100-member Senate. With the Senate to begin debate on Wednesday, Alito, a federal appeals judge since 1990, appeared headed toward confirmation. If approved, Alito would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate conservative who often has been the swing vote on the nine-member court on social issues such as abortion rights and civil rights. At his hearing, Republicans hailed Alito as "mainstream conservative" who had received the American Bar Association's top rating. Democrats voiced concerns that he would move the court too far to the right. The three-day telephone poll of 1,006 adult Americans was begun on January 20, a week after his confirmation hearing ended. According to the survey, the percentage of Americans who believed Alito should be confirmed rose to 54 percent from 49 percent. Those opposed remained unchanged at 30 percent. Most of the Senate's 44 Democrats and one independent are expected to oppose Alito. But none has threatened a filibuster, which would permit unlimited debate intended to kill the nomination. Bush noted on Monday that 14 senators -- seven Democrats and seven Republicans -- agreed last year to oppose filibusters of judicial nominees unless there are "extraordinary circumstances." "There has been no sign of any extraordinary circumstance except for this extraordinary thing -- he's extraordinarily capable to serve on the Supreme Court," Bush said in fielding questions at Kansas State University.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (9605)	1/24/2006 11:06:32 AM
From: TimF	Respond to of 541671

The piece would have been strengthened if he quoted non-Americans, esp. influential or respected non-Americans who made interesting and insightful quote, but the lack of such quotes doesn't mean the piece is worthless. As for his "effort to rationalize everything America does". I see no such effort. I do see an effort to portray the US's actions as overall being a strong positive for the rest of the world. I see an effort to argue that the US is not trying to achieve or expand an empire. I see an effort to respond to specific criticisms like the assertion that the US is not open to influence from other countries. All of that is there, but there is no effort to say the US is always right, or to rationalize everything. You might argue that it should address certain issues that it doesn't address. But lack of addressing those issues doesn't make for rationalizing them. It would have to address them if it was going to rationalize them or say they are perfectly ok. The article really didn't go in to that level of detail. It was saying the overall picture is positive. Not that every single action, or even every single major action is positive. Tim