Even though they believe Halloween is a sinful Godless abomination, right-wingers got quite a treat on Monday with the nomination of ultra-conservative activist judge Samuel Alito, aka "ScAlito." Scalito's dissenting vote on a case involving the Planned Parenthood v Casey precedent has made him a darling of the religious right movement.
The bright side of how the Miers debacle unfolded was that it was clear Republican Senators and right-wing activists derailed the nomination on ideological grounds. An up-or-down vote, something every Republican demanded on lower court appointees, was not afforded to a candidate for Supreme Court. The Democrats, along with possibly Specter, Chaffee, and Snowe, have a clear precendent on which to filibuster and block Scalito's nomination. Provided Reid can get his act together - and I have every belief he can - it will be a fight we will win. The American people are on our side (see my posting and this poll) on this. Given Bush's sub-40 approval ratings, there's no reason to worry of any political backlash.
As for a trick, the other big political news this week is the indictment of a top Bush official for intentionally unmasking the identity of a clandestine CIA operative for political gain. Some have celebrated the Bush administration finally being held accountable for an act of treason. But, as E.J. Dionne points out, it is the Republicans who have actually won here.
As long as Bush still faced the voters, the White House wanted Americans to think that officials such as Libby, Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney had nothing to do with the leak campaign to discredit its arch-critic on Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.And Libby, the good soldier, pursued a brilliant strategy to slow the inquiry down. As long as he was claiming that journalists were responsible for spreading around the name and past CIA employment of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, Libby knew that at least some news organizations would resist having reporters testify. The journalistic "shield" was converted into a shield for the Bush administration's coverup.
Rove and Libby testified last year. If they had been honest and truthful about their wrongdoings, it would have caused a huge scandal towards the end of a presidential campaign. It is likely to have been enough to push 2-3% towards John Kerry, thus electing him President of the United States. The coverup worked. Bush was reelected, and now he will be able to pardon Libby (and possibly Rove), thus eliminating any repercussions of their wrongdoing. Quite a trick indeed.