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A charade it was. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), former long-term Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said before the questioning began that he had been told that not a single Committee Democrat would vote for Alito. Hatch explained that "They've already made up their minds. Nobody will be listening." During the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Chief Justice Roberts, Ranking Democrat Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) surprised even his colleagues by announcing that he would vote in favor of the Roberts nomination.

We thought almost certainly that Leahy did so to provide himself the opportunity to contrast Alito with Roberts, thus justifying a vote against Alito. No doubt Leahy will attempt to do that, but it will be more difficult for him in that Alito did at least as favorable a job or perhaps even a little better job of appealing to the American people. Moreover, Alito's answers were similar enough to Roberts that Leahy could be splitting hairs if he were to claim that Roberts satisfied him but Alito did not.

Left-wing groups which so greatly influence the Democratic Party were outraged when Leahy and Senator Herbert H. Kohl (D-WI) voted for Roberts in the Senate Judiciary Committee and were joined by 20 Democrats in the full Senate. The groups have been demanding a filibuster.

Even after many media liberals suggested that Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats went too far with Alito, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (R-NV) praised his colleagues on the Committee when saying they did precisely what they were expected to do. While keeping the filibuster theoretically on the table, Reid said Democrats would meet early this week to determine their strategy. Unless threats from leftists and pro-abortion groups are so great that Democrats feel they have no choice, they will drop the filibuster and will not require that a vote against Alito be a mandatory party-line vote. That position would free up 10 to 12 Democrats who at least have expressed an open mind about Alito and voting for his confirmation.

There is much rejoicing in conservative circles about Alito. Our folks believe he would move the High Court to the right.

At the risk of being accused of dampening spirits, I will make two cautionary notes. First, we simply do not know how Justices will vote until they actually have been appointed to the High Court. Most are a disappointment in that respect. The late right-wing New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thompson, Jr. told me he would stake his career that we would love Judge David H. Souter as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. Not! Only Justice Byron R. White, JFK's sole appointment to the Supreme Court, was a surprise in the right direction. Second, having Alito on the High Court, contrary to public understanding, does NOT mean conservatives will be a majority on the High Court. Have we forgotten about Justice Anthony M. Kennedy?

Assuming that Judge Alito and Chief Justice Roberts typically would vote as followers of the Constitution, that would mean that they plus Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas will be in the conservative wing, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Brier, John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter in the liberal wing, leaving Justice Anthony M. Kennedy as the swing vote. Justice Kennedy, who allegedly is Catholic, has voted for abortion and sodomy rights and the right for the government to take your home and give your property to a developer if it means more money in the city coffers. Justice Kennedy once may have been a conservative, but if he ever was one, he is no longer a conservative. Unless the considerable intellects of Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas can persuade Kennedy, we more often likely are to see Kennedy voting with the liberals. This would mean that conservatives would have to wait for another retirement and would have to hope that the retirement would occur while George W. Bush is President and while Republicans control the Senate.

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